Eclipse of Hope
Harriet Ellenberger
A moon blots out a sun.
Darkening silence comes between us.
In place of my house,
stands a tower of stone.
At its crown —
the lightning catcher,
she who writes on the blank rune.
Below, my departing selves
wait with their boats.
Driftwood burns.
I mark in sand
the sign of migration.
My eyes sting.
At my wingbones
four winds rise.
A moon blots out a sun.
Darkening silence comes between us.
In place of my house,
stands a tower of stone.
At its crown —
the lightning catcher,
she who writes on the blank rune.
Below, my departing selves
wait with their boats.
Driftwood burns.
I mark in sand
the sign of migration.
My eyes sting.
At my wingbones
four winds rise.
Working notes
The original version of “Eclipse of Hope” was written sometime in the mid-1980s, before I turned forty and left the U.S. for Canada. I loved the poem even while I was writing it because it felt both acutely personal and eerily collective. But there was a tongue-tangle in the middle that I couldn't for the life of me fix. It took another twenty-five years before the poem as it was meant to be suddenly surfaced in my mind.
I'm happy that “Eclipse” has finally found its form, and even happier that it's found a home in the new Trivia.
I'm happy that “Eclipse” has finally found its form, and even happier that it's found a home in the new Trivia.
About the author
Harriet Ellenberger was an activist in the U.S. civil rights and anti-Vietnam War
movements and a founding member of the Charlotte (North Carolina) Women's Center
(1971). She founded and edited the lesbian feminist journal Sinister Wisdom with
Catherine Nicholson (1976-81), was a founding member of the bilingual feminist
bookstore L'Essentielle in Montreal (1987), published a small feminist journal on the
web called She Is Still Burning (2000-2003), and co-edited with Lise Weil several issues
of Trivia: Voices of Feminism (2004-8). She lives in rural New Brunswick, where she and her partner are renovating an old farmhouse.
For an updated list of works published in TRIVIA, please see this author's contributor page.
movements and a founding member of the Charlotte (North Carolina) Women's Center
(1971). She founded and edited the lesbian feminist journal Sinister Wisdom with
Catherine Nicholson (1976-81), was a founding member of the bilingual feminist
bookstore L'Essentielle in Montreal (1987), published a small feminist journal on the
web called She Is Still Burning (2000-2003), and co-edited with Lise Weil several issues
of Trivia: Voices of Feminism (2004-8). She lives in rural New Brunswick, where she and her partner are renovating an old farmhouse.
For an updated list of works published in TRIVIA, please see this author's contributor page.