NaPoWriMo 2024 Day 8 – The Eclipse

Got together with Mom, some of Mom’s neighbors and some of my cousins today in Rensselaer to watch the eclipse. We had eclipse glasses but we also had a great few hours and for most of it had a great view of a 97% eclipse despite the passing clouds.

Trying not to stare
we raised our eclipse glasses
again and again.

fleeting minutes
wondering where the sun went
nibbled by the moon

Opted to stay home
missed totality but
enjoyed the eclipse

eclipse, we reckoned
all heads tilting at the same
angle, lips ajar

the moon’s shadow
in a brief starring role
stole the spotlight

NaPoWriMo 2024 Day 8 – The Eclipse

NaPoWriMo 2024 Day 7

Woke today to weather maps that promised: “incomplete obscuration of the sun during totality” which of course is the moon’s job. Half of the weather service seems focused on how to describe statistics so you spend enough time trying to figure out what the percentages are describing and what it means to you, perhaps until you lose interest. The other half are apparently celebrating poetry month with seven syllable phrases like “incomplete obscuration”. Here, it’s going to be too cloudy but have a free haiku line.

On the other side
of these clouds
Where we imagine
Our long gone family,
Our cats and dogs, our beliefs,
Some off-screen
Coincidence of sun and moon
And us plays out unseen
These things, like so much
Of each long life that
nightly fills the darkness
With if onlys

After weeks of watching
The hopeful weather reports
Of course it’s cloudy

This time, memory
Of the last eclipse we saw
Will have to suffice

weathermen forecast
incomplete obscuration
clouding the future

NaPoWriMo 2024 Day 7

NaPoWriMo 2024 Day 6

Spotty sun on and off. Cats are sleeping. I’m trying to think what has to be done in case we travel to see the eclipse! Have a tanka while waiting.

The sun falls gently
on the garden’s daffodils
i can only watch

while waiting for the eclipse
the flowers turn toward the light

NaPoWriMo 2024 Day 6