Total Eclipse of the Sun

TOTAL ECLIPSE OF THE SUN We watched horrified, awe-struck for hours while the sun died Slowly, shorn of long golden locks, suffocated by the oncoming moon-rock. Samson, blinded. His eyes bitten out - nothing left - Devoured, destroyed : then completely consumed as he died in silence, In his Stygian cave, as he gave up the ghost, as he left us alone. Shadow of moon like a hunter’s pitch cloak encroached with vulture speed . Birds, even the skylark, silenced, harking in their stark branches For the inky wings of the angel of death, coming - not to Ramases - to us. Bleak mark in the east dark: coming fast - it was upon us even as we asked What is it? Grey through miles of mist, then raven-darker, as it closed on us, Swooped us into its black veil, sunless, lightless, lifeless - where no bird sings, And our breath stopped, held, unnoticed: and we, bereft, waited in mourning. Till the sun -Samson- with re-grown bright hair poured out behind the moon, Miraculously rose from the dead, pushed the black cave-stone into oblivion And pierced a hole in the veil, burning that hole infinitely, gloriously, And we were restored to life in the smile of heaven. …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Note: A total solar eclipse is an unforgettable sight. This poem is about such an eclipse which I saw in Weyburn, Saskatchewan i n 1977. One cannot help being struck by the loss of the sun in the daytime. Birds and animals also react strangely. I recommend anyone to try to see a total solar eclipse if it is possible. A partial solar eclipse, or a lunar eclipse, are not remotely as spectacular as a total solar eclipse.