I was fortunate enough to be in the precise path of the recent solar eclipse in northern North America on April 8, precisely enough within the path to view the eclipse event from a comfortable front yard chair at home over a thousand feet in elevation.
Post-event comments in media by observers confirmed the similarity of responses. And the responses, including these, were quite unexpected.
To witnesss the beginning of totality was startling,breath-catching, provoking quiet tears and a welling of the throat. Why? What was the significance of this moment? … A profound evidence of something unnameable? The absolute autonomy of nature, its perfect synchronicity, its separation from human existence, human pretensions, human confidence? Aesthetics, beauty, absolute originality, yes — but aloof, serene, conviction laid bare, the necessity of inevitable patterns, an assertion of absolute flow, the brevity of the moment, impermenance, the brevity of totality, the smallness of our thoughts and the deliverance of our being to the universe. And yet, in the next moment, will we understand, will we grasp some truth, some meaning?
Eclipse Doggerel:
Old man Sol
sprawled
on a park bench,
glare drenching terra firm, ah,
flaring out heat and sturm
und drang —
now comes lithe Lady Luna,
Moon apart and quiet dark.
In a moment blotting out arrogant Sol, all
darkening, from shadow to eclipse,
ipso facto gone!
Sol frowning angry
for a moment —
then released to light again,
limp and wan,
a moment’s humiliation,
unexpectedly restored to pre-eminence,
relieved, revived, rebuked, for now.
And Lady Luna, in the Tao,
smiling,
in quiet delight.