Yes, eclipses with their threat of permanent loss of light can remind us of how old stories tried to explain and prevent what must have been potentially terrifying. Total loss of light, total loss of sight... My poem juxtaposes, perhaps even blends, my experience of eclipse (I draw on the 1999 eclipse which was more powerful) with that of the blinding of an Old Testament hero. Poor blinded Samson – brought down to Gaza, bound with fetters of brass, forced to grind in the prison house... the focus of derision. Until – 'suffer me that I may feel the pillars, that I may lean upon them' – momentarily empowered once again, he shared his own permanent darkness with his tormentors, bringing the world crashing down upon one and all. An eclipse to end all eclipses. I reflect on the exclusion of light – in my case partial and temporary; in his, total and perpetual. Two voices, two very different endings. Eclipse Birds fall silent at this false dusk. As circles ...