I am nothing but an aggregation
of millions upon millions upon millions of hydrogen and oxygen atoms,
bound up into millions upon millions upon millions of water molecules,
condensed into millions upon millions upon millions of tiny droplets.
Most, as I am sure you would expect, are warm and wet,
but those up high are frozen into crystals of ice.
And somewhere in my midst, where droplets and crystals mingle?
Well that is where the magic happens.
Where molecules escape from droplets
to rush towards their frozen cousins,
tumbling down the saturation concentration gradient
before crash-landing into the ice-bound surface.
Engorged by so many new arrivals,
those fattened crystals may clash with their neighbours
to splinter into yet more hungry shards
or, starting to fall, they drop into warmer air,
melting as they go
before loudly announcing their arrival in your realm.
How do you greet your visitors?
I see you rush to find shelter
and I hear you complain about my gift
as you try to deny the existence of those joyous, dancing drops,
each one a marvellous creation
of one of nature's spells.
Next time, do not forget what gave those drops
the supercharged growth that sent them raining to the ground,
that magic occurring in the midst of one like me.
Instead, try lifting your head and throw out your arms
to join their joyous dance.
For you too can be transformed by cloud magic.
(c) Tim O’Hare, October 2024
About this poem: At this time of year I teach a second year module on Meteorology. In this module, in addition to trying to give students some insight into some of the physical processes that occur within the atmosphere and act to control the Earth’s climate and give us our ever-varying weather, I hope to inspire an interest in, and dare I say it a love of, all things meteorological. Along the way I get to introduce some pretty amazing snippets of physics and one of my favourites of these is the amazingly subtle process occuring in deep clouds through which water molecules rapidly aggregate to form drops that are big enough to fall from the sky without evaporating back into water vapour before they reach the ground (i.e. to rain). This process is known as the Bergeron process after the Norwegian meteorologist who proposed its existence. This year I decided I would marry my love of this kind of physical process – which I unashamedly describe as ‘magic’ in my lectures – with my enjoyment of writing poems. This poem – ‘Cloud Magic’ – is the result. Next time you are caught out by a sudden heavy shower, don’t run for cover and don’t grumble, but embrace the rain is it falls around you and marvel at this example of nature’s magic (aka physics!) at work.
and a poet 