On a new episode of ID the Future, I welcome astrophysicist Guillermo Gonzalez back to the program to read and discuss his poem “Totality: A Celestial Theater,” written to commemorate the total solar eclipse that occurred in April 2024. Find the podcast and listen to it here. You may already be familiar with Gonzalez’s popular book The Privileged Planet, co-authored with Dr. Jay Richards, exploring the arguments for our privileged place in the cosmos. You might also have heard about his new young adult novel The Farm at the Center of the Universe, co-written with Dr. Jonathan Witt. But you likely didn’t know this accomplished scientist and author is also a poet!

Gonzalez first discusses his experience of the 2024 total solar eclipse and his co-hosting of Discovery Institute’s eclipse watching event in Waxahachie, Texas. He describes what it was like to be treated to almost five minutes of totality, and explains why the fortuitous convergence of factors that produce perfect solar eclipses may be more conspiracy than coincidence. 

Gonzalez rounds out the conversation by treating us to a reading of his poem. At 19 stanzas, “Totality” is a weighty and lyrical homage to a singular celestial event. Here’s a sampling of the imagery Gonzalez conjures:

A specter made of shadow, swift and strange,
Devours the day, the world to rearrange.
Unnatural night descends in eerie hush,
As Sun’s fair face fades to a ghostly blush.

Behold! A ring of light, the Corona’s crown,
Ethereal halo ’round the Moon’s dark gown.
In skies so vast, our earthly woes seem small,
The mind enchanted, heart and soul in thrall.

These fleeting moments stretch, an endless sigh,
The march of time slowed to a lullaby.
The senses reel, the mind can scarce conceive,
Of wonders that the eyes cannot believe.

Dig Deeper

• Watch our recent interview with Guillermo Gonzalez and Jay Richards about their new young adult novel The Farm at the Center of the Universe: