Volcano’s child

The baby peak of Pico do Fogo

The baby peak of Pico do Fogo

Child

The volcano towers; forms a mountain sublime
Build by eruptions and matured over time
But a new site is feeding from its magma supply
A small mountain is trying to reach for the sky
The volcano watches a new cone unfold
Child of its magma. New life to behold

The little volcano plays with the heat
Throws little lava bombs. The world seems a treat
Its volatiles excitingly bubble away
The little volcano sings in its play

I sit on the stool; play music by ear
You climb on my knee, the music to hear
Lean to the side and grab the guitar
squeal in delight; a smile as a star
A one year old child discovers the world
Tries daily new things; a flower unfurls
Squirming, vibrating, our carpenter bee
I will hold you tight – sit safe on my knee

prince

Time gone, and the baby has grown to a cone
The mountain protecting the softly young stone
sharing its magma in daily delight
Let new flows add measure to the little one’s height
Within, our child has also developed and grown
lives in our house but oft leaves us alone
No longer ours – his own person become
plays with his mates and likes bubble gum
Confidence grown but he still needs his hugs
than goes out collecting beetles and bugs

double-volcano

The years have gone by; you are taller than me
And ready to fly as I suddenly see
Yearning for freedom from parental rule
While I now need your hugs, my treasure and jewel
And little volcano seems little no more
Has outgrown the mountain and come to the fore
Towering mountain, take note of the sign
Our future has passed. It is time to decline.

For our children are ours for just a brief time
They must build up their own lives and leave us behind
To give them their freedom is a hard thing to do
Be patient, my child, I’ll learn this with you
Our little one once – you made me feel new
Fly far now, my child, I will set you free

Albert

Happy Christmas from all of us to all of you!

Merry-Christmas-Animated-Pic-mn4

Text based on Kleines Madchen from Reinhard Mey

42 thoughts on “Volcano’s child

  1. Merry Christmas everyone! Keeping an eye on little Bogofslof up in the Aleutians.

  2. Merry Christmas, all! Thanks for the poetry, Albert.

    Live from the wolf center near San Diego (snow in out mountains!)

  3. Joyeux noël à tous
    Euh, en Suisse pas beaucoup de neige à basse altitude (contrairement à San Diego 🙂 🙂 )

    • England has an exceptionally mild Christmas with absolutely no snow. Sad. But still a fun time. ‘t

      ‘t Was the night before Christmas and all through VC, nothing was stirring not even BillG//
      The watchers were hanging in their chairs in despair, hoping an eruption would soon be there

      etc.

  4. One of my interests in life is storm chasing – yes, tornados, lightning, etc. My daughter just asked me – “Dad, in your retirement are you going to go volcano chasing?” How fast do we think, say, Vesuvius can go?

    • Faster than you can run. Pompei didn’t make it out alive…well, many didn’t, but I’m sure that Pompey got some of them out.

    • About 5cm per year, away from America. Get the Zimmer frame ready.

  5. And a Very Happy Christmas, best wishes for 2017 to all Ewesome Volcano Chasers here!

  6. I AM VICTOR FRANKENSTEIN!!!!

    Just got finished glueing an angel’s head back on one of the figurines in my wife’s nativity set-up.

    • Hope it was before she found out!

      Merry Christmas from a lurker.

      • Well, actually it was a re-repair of something she broke last year. The urgency of the repair is that it was her mom’s nativity scene, so it has heirloom qualities. Very important this time if year.

      • The bit that irritated me was that naturally it would happen with me being out of epoxy. I don’t mind the close in detailed work… if I have the right materials. I used to have 2M certifications. (Mini level circuit board work. Never could get into micro level, I’m a caffeine user)

        • Just refreshing and you may not see this, but thanks for the response and Happy New Year!

  7. Merry Christmas to all from sunny and hot Australia and it is hot 30 * degrees that is everyday for a week at least, doesn’t happen that often in this part of the country.
    Your Poem is beautiful, thanks Albert

  8. Thanks for fun and beautiful poem. If you ould set music to it I wonder wthat that would be like?
    Also Merry christmas to al at VC!

  9. Merry Christmas to all & this is poem is perfect for me because 2 days after Christmas my youngest was born. 😉

    • I meant to do a teary eyed smile. Anyone know how to do it on here? With my daughter’s birthday coming up, reading the poem is very moving to me. 🙂

    • It’s curious the reporter left out one small fact: more of Mount Paektu is in China.

  10. Very shallow star east of Godabunga! Together with stormy weather. Also, bad storm named “Urd” (scary figure in Norse mythology) battering the coasts of Norway Denmark and Sweden. Hope my House will stand undamaged this time.

    • The storm has just left us alone here in the Faroes, we had one weather station show gusts of 78.7 m/s (283.3 km/h) and sustained winds at 54,2m/s(188,64km/h).

      Cars have been thrown around(some into the sea), some buildings totally destroyed, and a shitload of roofs have torn loose. One injury has been reported, a broken leg. Here’s some pics of damage http://portal.fo/myndir+stormskadar+kring+landid.html

      Urd isn’t a particularily scary figure in Norse mythos though, just a weaver of fate and destiny.

      • Got stuck watching the news today. (forcibly). About all they were yammering about were derecho conditions up north, and one actual tornado. And they did run a piece about homeowners laying traps for would be package thieves. The video for the one theif that triggered a blank shotgun shell was a hoot. I think she jumped about 3 feet when she set it off.

        Safety note: If anyone tries to do a similar trap, REMEMBER. In most jurisdictions you can be held legally liable for death or injury resulting from your trap. Had that girl freaked out and fled into the path of a car, the homeowner could probably be held liable in her injuries. In the US, a lawyer will sue for just about anything. It’s all they do.

      • I am not sure the numbers can be correct. That kind of wind would be close to the world record, not much below the category-5 typhoon in the Philippines. The damage doesn’t seem bad enough – nothing would have been left standing. Perhaps the wind speeds from that station are in knots rather than m/s? 78 knots would be close to 150 km/h, and 54 knots is 100km/h. (The difference is about a factor of 2.) That would seem consistent with the damage on the pictures. Still a very bad storm.

        • The numbers are correct.
          Here’s some screenshots of the data http://imgur.com/a/7gCDm there are no buildings in the area where those gust occured. The valley in which the weather station is placed on top of, is notorious for being a windy place, even on calm days due to a serious bottleneck effect. The station there has been ripped from it’s foundations several times through the years.

          Most inhabitated locations had gusts in the region of 50 m/s give or take a bit

      • Urd turned out to be much weaker when hitting our island (Swedish west coast) No damage and only 30+m/s. Instead, peering out at the dark flooded harbor beneath my house, I saw a car running right into the harbor. (due to flooding it was not possible to see road or harbor bassain, or maybe it was Homo Stultus again). I yelled to my wife and we rushed out in the storm. By then the wind had mooved the floating car towards a jetty. We waded out on the partially submerge jetty towards the car, lights still on. The tail gate was still above surface and I managed to open it. Together we fished out a very wet and cold elderly gentleman..The car sunk imediately. So, obviously Urd had some problem with his spinning but managed to sort it out to a happy end.

  11. Bogoslof still keeping AVO very busy, fourth explosive eruption, yet again up to 30,000ft. This has to be comfortably a VEI-3 by now. Probably makes it the biggest eruption of the year overall. Which still makes this year rather average in volcanic terms.

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