In the Path of Totality,
Umbral Illumination
April 8, 2024
The sun kissed me good morning today,
bright face peeking up
from behind mountains of tall pine,
mirrored in silent lake glass
as if to say to me—look, today is the day my heart becomes yours.
I walk wide-eyed in morning grass
laced with dew universes and intricate greening.
I press the soft wet earth between my toes,
forgive my flawed human vessel
and feel my chest rise toward the open sky,
as if to say to the sun—look, today is the day my heart becomes yours.
The sun readies her body of fire and gold for a slow dance with our moon,
a planetary tango of time and space, orbits and penumbras, shadow and light.
A line that divides our country
will bring it back together again in celestial beauty,
millions of darkened eyes pointed to sky witnessing wonder
as the sun folds light into herself to reveal
a diamond ring, a crown.
The total solar eclipse is moments away and I can feel us
spinning toward her. My body moves in waves
if I lie still enough to become an ocean.
I close my eyes and feel the tug of tides moon-rise inside me.
My imagination senses a shadow
move across my face, everything goes dark,
my cheeks blush red and burn with the anticipation of totality.
Glorious sun—make me a silhouette you can turn back into stars,
the cosmos inside me is rising to meet you.
We are poised to marry the sun today,
a total solar eclipse dance
in the umbra of Hot Springs National Park,
waiting to make light out of darkness in the middle of the day.
We’re watching the heavens-in-waiting from a carved out personal sky,
a circle of ancient friends drinking ancient waters revolving here in love—
we turn around to see ourselves becoming infinite again,
we bow to the gods we see in each other
behind our human forms,
we follow our own shadows to the glow of our beginnings—
our smiles are solar eclipse sun salutations,
our eyes are ever-shooting stars,
our hearts lead us only to light unfolding into more light.
Let’s use this celestial moment in universal time.
Use this day to eclipse
the moments you want to leave behind.
See your own personal path and totality today,
your own unique world of wholeness,
the perfect swirling universe of you.
See that you have everything you need already inside you.
Kiss the journey below your own perfect feet,
your feet that brought you to this perfect moment.
You are holy.
You are sacred.
You are enough.
You are poised to marry the eclipsing sun today.
She already kissed you good morning.
Through your dark glasses, you can see her curves merging
and bending, transcending
our earthly measurements to reach a cosmic climax.
Look around. Look up. Breathe.
When the sun offers you a diamond ring today—
when she gets down on one blazing knee
and asks if you want to let your dark shadows pass over and through,
look up with your open heart to her
bright eclipsing reflection
and say
I do.
I do.
I do.
Kai Coggin is the inaugural Poet Laureate of the City of Hot Springs, Arkansas, and author of five collections, most recently Mother of Other Kingdoms (Harbor Editions, 2024). She is a certified master naturalist, a K-12 teaching artist in poetry with the Arkansas Arts Council, a CATALYZE grant fellow from the Mid-America Arts Alliance, and host of the longest running consecutive weekly open mic series in the country—Wednesday Night Poetry. She lives with her wife in a peaceful valley, where they tend to wild ones and each other.
Photo of solar eclipse by Yinan Chen, courtesy Pixabay. Photo of Kai Coggin by Jeff Fuller-Freeman. Music in audio reading by Whitesand.
