Class Year

2026

Document Type

Creative Writing

Date of Creation

Spring 2026

Department 1

English

Abstract

The title of this collection, Totality: An Eclipse, and the titles of each of its three sections (“First Contact,” “Second Contact,” and “Third Contact”) combine to help illustrate my experience with grief as a solar eclipse: totality is the maximum phase of a total solar eclipse; first contact is when the sun just begins to disappear in the sky; second contact is when there is complete darkness in the sky; and third contact is when daylight finally returns. I began this project in the months after my father died in December 2024, following a terminal cancer diagnosis. Then, my mother passed away unexpectedly in May 2025. I sat down and wrote a poem the day after she passed, and by the end of the summer, I had started the collection ahead. Throughout the collection, I use a variety of forms, including villanelles, sonnets, acrostics, a ballad, and a sestina, as well as two abstract shape poems, to further visualize aspects of my life with and without my parents. I also use free verse poems to reference my parents’ and my shared love of music and some of my memories with them. In this collection of poems, I hope to shed light on the reality of grief as both a college student and an only child, and I hope to memorialize my parents and their personalities through my writing.

Comments

Written for ENG 464: Honors Thesis

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