2001
We hiked across lava fields
steam rising in the distance.
Kilahuea, birthing new shoreline,
slowly spilling into the sea.
Lagoon House was our delight
on beautiful Kapoho Beach.
Delerious with plumeria’s scent,
we swam wth sea turtles oh so close,
in nearby Champagne Pond.
2018
No longer content with shoreline,
Kilahuea’s temper rose.
Eruptions spewed farther, fiercer,
gave birth to graveyards deep.
Solidified lava, fifty-feet thick,
buried that beloved place.
Homes gone. Plumeria gone.
Pele, Kapoho’s sole resident,
silent in her new abode.
Photos from our stay at the Lagoon House in 2001. That’s me floating/snorkeling in Champagne pond, just beyond the house. We really did swim with the sea turtles there. And we took our children and their spouses on a lava walk tour — obviously Kilahuea was very tame then – although it was HOT and hissing and the hardened lava was very sharp.
Kilahuea’s angry eruption in 2018 and the result today. The beautiful home we stayed in, and that entire area, is now covered by fifty-feet of lava. The last photo is a rendering of Pele, the goddess of volcanoes.
Thank you Amaya for our dVerse Tuesday Poetics prompt — to address “birthing” in some way.
lillian the home poet 
I find it amazing how volcanoes destroy giving birth to new land… I still remember the story of Surtsey which I think was still growing when I was a kid… (and my father a professor, showed me pictures)
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Exactly right. And sometimes the lava simply builds additional land….but sadly, sometimes it destroys as it builds.
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I am always amazed at the power of this planet. Well done Lillian!
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So lovely and so sad, by turns. The individual words you used were poetry in themselves, especially in the first section.
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I spent a week on the big island in 2012. Kilahuea was quiet, but as an asthmatic, I could not tolerate her toxic fumes, and had to stay in the car while my wife visited it. The titanic eruption last year was heartbreaking.
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Wow! What a beautiful place… what a sad rebirth of the shoreline and your house.
I liked the line …
Eruptions spewed farther, fiercer,
gave birth to graveyards deep.
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Wonderful memories, Lill, great pictures and a lesson in geography for me, too. The Earth is our mother and constantly giving birth. A tiring process. I love the contrast of imagery in the lines:
‘…birthing new shoreline,
slowly spilling into the sea’
and
‘Kilahuea’s temper rose.
Eruptions spewed farther, fiercer,
gave birth to graveyards deep.’
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A fiery Phoenix-like birth. (K)
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I marvel at how the landscape of a place can change so suddenly. One moment you can be standing on a certain part of the earth, and the next, no one will ever be standing in that spot ever again. It’s humbling.
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You painted such a paradise – such loss.
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