Posts Tagged ‘Solar Eclipses’
So, somewhat against my best judgement (that is, things can pall if they become too routine — but then one can always quit early and who else will know?) I accepted a dare to myself and “joined” NaPoWriMo, the write-a-poem-from-a-daily-prompt challenge for National Poetry Month, a.k.a. April. But the NaPo guys had to know better for April 8, at least for a broad swath of states from Texas to Maine, where there was to be a total solar eclipse.
Didn’t they?
You see, Indianapolis — and fifty or so miles south, right here in Bloomington — was smack in the center of the eclipse path. For my own case, I watched it in Dunn Meadow, an Indiana University gathering place, absorbing the wonder of the crowd — here largely composed of cheering students as total darkness approached, then (with a “diamond ring” flash with the first light’s reappearance between two lunar mountains) was re-dispelled, though I must confess with a certain jadedness myself, having observed a similar total solar eclipse in Hopkinsville, KY in 2017 (cf. August 22 2017). But even for me still a thrill, and one well worth enjoying again.
Whereas, for mere poem-writing . . . well, I’ll confess too that I first-drafted this beforehand, this morning, but as I say they still should have known better. You see, this was today’s prompt, for April 8: “a poem that centers around an encounter or relationship between two people (or things) that shouldn’t really have ever met – whether due to time, space, age, the differences in their nature, or for any other reason.”
Thus:
ECLIPSE
It was fated to fail,
this joining of sun and moon:
he was hot, she colder —
icy, in fact, when
their relationship started,
his glory hidden
while she had her way —
but only for minutes.
He came to his senses,
his brilliance intact
at their ultimate breakup,
complete,
or at least for the next few
years.
This is the time for second quarter royalties to (as it were) come home, and the first report was received this week. One may recall that royalties for individual short stories in an anthology, for instance, or possibly as stand-alone chapbooks are rarely large, and it’s been my custom to avoid embarrassment on both sides by declining to identify either the publisher or the exact amount. So let it suffice just to say a 
significant recipient this time around will be the US Postal Service for selling the stamp to send the check to me.
Then, continuing on the topic of matters postal, I stopped by the post office this afternoon needing to buy stamps for myself, and, having been tipped off, asked for two sheets (in this case of twenty stamps each) of the one honoring last month’s solar eclipse (cf. August 22). The tip? If you press your thumb on the stamp’s picture of the occluded sun, rolling it a bit perhaps to assure that all has been warmed by its touch, and then remove it — voila! The picture you’ll see is now one of the moon!
jamesdorrwriter 