Volcano

deeply emotive the subject
i feel Josh

the use of the metaphor couldn't be more powerful

the last stanza
left me in a deep pause...

Thank you cold_fusion;
"the last stanza
left me in a deep pause... "
... me too - after I'd written the last stanza - I just stared at it for several minutes, wondering for a bit if I'd just committed some sort of crime or something.

Oh yipe!  I've heard stories like this, Josh. Of matches and lighting cigarettes during war.

Sends chills down the spine.  

Thank you for the read, Ahavati. I hadn't thought of an interpretation the way you have; I was holding in mind the metaphor of volcano-as-soldier more generally. But that's the way with poetry (and any event I guess), it speaks through our own personal filtered 'reading' of a situation.

So powerful, hands to heart ... if only there were enough tears to put it out ... but alas ...

"if only there were enough tears to put it out" ... that is a most wonderful line, Jemac. I'm feeling particularly emotional this year in the lead-up to Armistice Day. I would dearly love to lay my own experience of 'war-karma' finally to rest and live the rest of my life free of it all.
May I consider it (the line you wrote) for a possible future poem?

I'm sure it is a deeply emotional time ... and yes, of course you may use my comment ... line 🤗

Tank you - and thank you for the RL.

Well said my friend! Lest we forget! How many lives, destroyed by greed and hate? How many lives sacrificed so we could live free and strong? For those who have passed on every front in the name of a better world, may their sacrifice not have been in vane. J.

Thanks J, re my comment to jemac above, I am sooooo tired of all this war-karma stuff now. Indeed, I couldn't agree more with you, may their sacrifice not have been in vain. It's up to me to 'process' it to completion, I guess - and then live free of it all.

The volcano is an ideal symbol for a soldier just following orders.  His "is but to do or die."  The lava could be his blood.  Excellent work, Josh!

Hi Crowfly, thank you for the comment. I had thought of 'lava' as part of the poem precisely in the way you mention but couldn't find a way of working it in, in the 'staccato' mode of the poem - which I wanted to keep short. Thanks again for the RL.

been drawn to the poets of the first world war
since my early twenties, men and women with such an interest
in beauty, and yet so enveloped by death ..
have you read ivor gurney ? I wish more people would ..

Was introduced to Wilfrid Owen, Robert Graves, Siegfried Sassoon at school. Owen's poems niggled under my skin for decades. Then I read (rather belatedly) "All Quiet on the Western Front", a cathartic experience in which I was kind of catapulted into the mindset of a past world where "civvy life" became totally meaningless for me. In some ways I still feel I'm trying to get solid ground back under my feet.
I've not heard of Ivor Guerney - I'm on the case { :)) }. Thank you.

Just like that…it's gone
life is but a flash in the pan.
Here today I am at this moment
Inshala, as they say
Archetypal soldiers we are
brought into this world together
all for one and one for all
Will anyone even remember
after this is all over?

Thank you for the comment, Babajava.
"Inshala" - not familiar with this term; google suggests (when spelt Inshallah) it might be the arabic for "God willing"- is that so?
Did I pick up on DUP somewhere you were in Vietnam?
The world of soldiering somehow shakes the core of my being even though I've never been in it myself.
Armistice Day each year brings very mixed feelings for me. I hate the war-industry but feel deeply for those caught up in the front line of it all - whether they chose it or were conscripted.

By the way, I saw a big storm hit Mexico yesterday - hope you're o.k. Josh.

I did what I had to do to Survive.
I worked in the supply line. No blood spilled. I hate what we did over there.
I hate what we're doing in the middle east. I am ashamed of our country for its complicity.  
Hurricane Willa is south of us. We were grazed by Sergio. No problems! Thanks for your concern.

Very... shall we say... explicit... that's quite the picture you've painted, Josh...

I see things literally... which made for an interesting read...
the volcano resembled Kilaueia and evolved on the screen
before my mind's eye as I perused the page...
i ended up with the smoking soldier...
who should have known better...
now dead... Ely

Thank you Ely, have just looked up Kilaueia and see it's an active volcano possibly about due for a big eruption. Interesting to have that picture in mind. It's adds force to the reading.

Kilaueia erupted earlier this year and covered a deal of the island...
You should see the pictures, Josh...
it's amazing at the very least
No surprise if it happened again ... it's right over the birthing place of the Hawaiian Island chain...

By the way...
the Volcán does indeed have a job...
building more islands...
and Pelé, the Goddess of the Volcano... is very good at her gig... Ely