Hello Friends,
A number of poems have been written about eclipses, but what I like about today’s 1997 sonnet by Robert Bly is its emphasis on viewing the eclipse as a collective human activity, something you never do alone.
Enjoy.
Ællen
A number of poems have been written about eclipses, but what I like about today’s 1997 sonnet by Robert Bly is its emphasis on viewing the eclipse as a collective human activity, something you never do alone.
Enjoy.
Ællen
Seeing the Eclipse in Maine
It started about noon. On top of Mount Batte,
We were all exclaiming. Someone had a cardboard
And a pin, and we all cried out when the sun
Appeared in tiny form on the notebook cover.
It was hard to believe. The high school teacher
We’d met called it a pinhole camera,
People in the Renaissance loved to do that.
And when the moon had passed partly through
We saw on a rock underneath a fir tree,
Dozens of crescents — made the same way —
Thousands! Even our straw hats produced
A few as we moved them over the bare granite.
We shared chocolate, and one man from Maine
Told a joke. Suns were everywhere — at our feet.
■
It started about noon. On top of Mount Batte,
We were all exclaiming. Someone had a cardboard
And a pin, and we all cried out when the sun
Appeared in tiny form on the notebook cover.
It was hard to believe. The high school teacher
We’d met called it a pinhole camera,
People in the Renaissance loved to do that.
And when the moon had passed partly through
We saw on a rock underneath a fir tree,
Dozens of crescents — made the same way —
Thousands! Even our straw hats produced
A few as we moved them over the bare granite.
We shared chocolate, and one man from Maine
Told a joke. Suns were everywhere — at our feet.
■