Shadow of the Moon Absolutely Unequaled When You See for First Time #travel #solar #eclipse #solareclipse #august #poem

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That’s me! A picture of a picture – t-shirt from one eclipse, projecting another

You’re up at dawn that morning,

Though hours still must pass.

Pack your gear and nervously

Check the day’s forecast.

Your telescope is ready,

Set-up’s quickly done,

Projecting now on clean white sheets

The circle of the Sun.

Chew your lip and check the time

Nothing can distract.

Wait for the first

Excited shout –

It’s here!

First Contact!

You’ll barely see it starting

As you project the Sun –

Until a nip, a flattened edge

Confirms that it’s begun.

Amuse yourself as best you can

As the minutes linger,

Projecting tiny crescent Suns

Through your crisscrossed fingers.

You can detect a cooling,

The day is turning chill,

But the gooseflesh on your arms

Is from the growing thrill.

Now the sky is darkening,

Shadows oddly clear.

A column in the west,

The light is getting weird.

Sunlight,

‘tween lunar peaks,

Shines through as Bailey Beads.

Second Contact!

Totality!

Join the crowd in cheers.

The blackest disk you’ll ever see

Surrounded by corona –

By wisps and streams of frozen light,

Brief glint of red

A bonus.

Yes, the stars are coming out,

Twilight now encircles,

But it’s too hard to look away,

You don’t get a rehearsal.

Third Contact!

Met with groans and cries,

Returning Sun’s a tease,

Blinks diamond ring,

Glares blinding slice,

Totality moves east.

We few among the millions

Received a cosmic boon,

We few are marked forever.

We stood within

The shadow

Of the Moon.

By Kate Rauner

Are you ready for the 2017 eclipse? Here’s one place to learn what to expect.

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2nd edition now available! Expanded!

Find more poems at my blog, about every other post or so, or try one of my collections. Short rhyming poems inspired by science and a few haiku too.

Filed under: Poetry Tagged: eclipse 2017, north American eclipse, total solar eclipse, what is totality like, what to expect from the eclipse, why do people watch eclipses