The Global Eclipse Gathering in Oregon was beautiful, full of creative sculptures made from nature, endless activities, diverse music, and genuine good hearted people. Witnessing a complete solar eclipse was no doubt the highlight of the trip and was both rewarding and overwhelming. At 10:30 in the morning these massive planets embraced one another, and covered the land with a sheet of darkness. This eerie feeling crept over me, with the complete realization of how minuscule I was. It drastically dropped in temperature and the cheering grew louder with every inch. When it hit totality, the chill that filled the air was replaced with silence. For a little over a minute it was just me, the sun, and the moon, and it was as if I had floated up there perfectly in line with them. The corona was the brightest purest ring of light I have ever seen. This sensory overload caused my eyes to tear up, but I was smiling as I completely surrendered to the experience.
When I watched the recap video it was completely different than what I had experienced. The cheering never stopped, and actually grew louder as it hit totality and continued to increase throughout the duration of the eclipse. I must have blocked them out, blocked everything out but what I was seeing. I completely isolated myself in the moment, and I will forever remember the connection I had with the movement of the planets.
Big Summit Prairie
Picturesque figures suspended between trees
Flipping, bouncing
Focused, balancing
Tiny multicolored houses
mystically themed spaces
Chimes become trancelike
seducing minds toward wild dimensions
Veiled fortress, warped mural
swing set made for two
Rainbow stretched a mile
across water
rippling on a field
vanished upon arrival
Did you see that?
Our wonderland
fiction was reality cupped in our hands
free prairie of possibilities
Scattered hammocks
Dream world, real world, no distinction
Wedding dress dream catchers
Rain pours, Pu-erh steeps
Wooden pastel teepees
clanking metal scraps
mirroring a setting sun
Purple, lime green pirouetting sticks
black back drop stage of night
Twirling flames glowing widened eyes
Morphing pixel bubbles
You chase after me
off the beaten path, a doorway
echoing I Wanna Dance
mirrors, fog, and disco balls
Beams of light twirl with a pigtailed girl
an opportunity presents itself
Do you dance?
Naked strangers bathing
Forgotten rafts, leach infested waters
Rotating gazebos
Fickle dust storms
twirled multicolored scarfs
parachuted patterned garments
Crystals guide us home
Piano man plays a light show
Arc on stilts
Bicycle taxis
Glowing treetop branches, LED veins
Big tops and yoga mats
A pentagon of doors
Where do they lead?
Sea of stars
glimmering like diamonds
revealing sacred geometry
Humbled, our grasp tightens
Planets align
Pure love illuminates
Totality
– Breelyn Shelkey
I missed the excitement, the beauty, the mystery, the spectacle……but I feel the moments in your poem.
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