Vox Populi
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José A. Alcántara: Eclipse
There are nights when you will be devoured,
slowly, inexorably, bit by burning bit.
You will hang there, in plain sight, slowly falling,
everyone standing around watching,
while a shadow swallows piece after piece.
Some will be thrilled at your steady undoing,
others, bored, wishing the spectacle over,
still others will be distracted by the stars
blazing past you. But yours will be no quick plummet.
Yours will be a slow, cold, blood-red loneliness,
played out against a backdrop of infinite black.
But remember this: as you fall, you grow bigger,
and just before you drop over the edge,
a sliver of new light. And after, while the watchers
stumble home wanting nothing more
than to climb into their soft warm beds,
you will blaze on, a bright body burning,
made more by the ravishing.
~~~~
José A. Alcántara is the author of The Bitten World: Poems (Tebot Bach, 2022). His poetry and prose have appeared in The American Poetry Review, American Life in Poetry, Harvard Review, Ploughshares, Poetry Northwest, Rattle, & The Slowdown. He lives in western Colorado and wherever he happens to pitch his tent.
Copyright 2025 José A. Alcántara. First published in Southern Indiana Review.
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Beautiful
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I agree!
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“But remember this: as you fall, you grow bigger,
and just before you drop over the edge,
a sliver of new light.”
Ooh, lovely!
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Yes, it is.
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Reading a poem with images to match moods, I celebrate how someone can so beautifully imply the transcendent, (or even an experience of transcending shame). The poem takes us into a world where observers watch our embarrassments, yet we grow more beautiful as they turn away. It’s difficult to create a convincing poem like this, generating light and selfhood from darkness, yet Alcantara does.
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I agree, Jim. Thank you.
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“made more by the ravishing”–gah. ahhhhh. Shine on, beloved poet, shine on.
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No one can take us from the dark to the light as well as this poet.
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I love this poem! A terrible defeat followed by a triumphant shining.
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