Eclipse of the Self

Ruvaani

I dissolved in the shadow of my own becoming,

where every heartbeat was an echo of absence,

and every breath a question unspoken.

The world pressed against my ribs,

but in the hollow between despair and forgetting,

a seed trembled—

ancient, patient, luminous.

From it rose fire unbidden,

not to burn what remained,

but to weave the fragments of me

into a new geometry of being.

I walked through the ruins of yesterday,

not seeking light, but becoming it,

each step an unmaking and a return,

each scar a hymn,

each tear a river that bore me home.

And when dawn finally leaned into my chest,

I did not rise as I was—

I rose as I had always been:

a soul forged in shadow,

tempered in loss,

and reborn

in the quiet, unrelenting brilliance of myself.

More from Ruvaani ↓

• @ruvaani.unclaimed on Instagram
• Her book, The Sunken Daffodil, is out now

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I’m filling the next chapter of One Poem Only and would love to include your work. Send me the poem you wrote and want the world to hear. New this round: if you’d like to read your own poem on the podcast, you can. No need for a perfect studio recording—just a clear audio file recorded in a quiet space. If you choose this option, you’ll submit your poem and an audio file of you reading it. Submissions close Thursday, July 30. I’ll respond by August 12. Whether I read your poem or you read it yourself, I’d love to hear what you’re ready to share.