Poem: "Even for an Old Soul"

This poem was inspired by the Great American Eclipse. It has been sponsored by Anthony & Shirley Barrette.


"Even for an Old Soul"


I remember walking the earth when
the Sun was a god whose departure
terrified the screaming masses, and
watching the shadows change with
a vague sense of familiarity, how I
held a ball in front of the fire and
tried to explain half-recalled physics.

I remember floating above it all
and watching the moon's shadow
race across the face of the planet,
so different from the view below,
yet no less mysterious, no less lovely.

In between, I stand among a crowd,
now awestruck rather than fearful,
the air smoked with barbecue
instead of sacrificial fires,
thinking how nice it is that
nobody is panicking for me
to clean up after; and this, too,
is wonderful in its own way.

It is a moment matched
with other moments in
a long necklace of lives,
a bright connection that
helps me to remember who
I have been and ever will be.

No matter how many times
I've seen a solar eclipse, it never fails
to take my breath away and close my throat
with the sweet ache of its fierce beauty.

Some things never get old,
even for an old soul.

* * *

Notes:

Read about eclipses.

An old soul is someone whose many prior incarnations influence how they move through their current one.