Rachel Curzon
Looking directly at the sun is a hazardous practice. You are not advised to look directly at the sun, even for short periods. Looking directly at the sun for just a few seconds can damage the delicate structure of the eye. Once, a woman in Connecticut held out an X-ray film and looked directly at the sun through the X-ray film. Somebody had told her this was safe. The sun’s harmful UV rays burned a perfect circle on her retina. The woman says now, I was young, I did not question the advice. Of course I regret it. The name for the damage done by looking directly at the sun is solar retinopathy. Cases of solar retinopathy spike during an eclipse. Perhaps human beings do not like to be dictated to. Perhaps it is too tempting to look directly at the sun when the sun is doing something unusual, or special. Perhaps we are all fools. Using a pinhole camera or viewing the eclipse through ISO 12312-2 glasses purchased from a reputable supplier are the only safe ways to look directly at the sun. Looking at you is like looking directly at the sun. It is glorious. Someone will pay for it later. A Reddit user says, as a child I used to look at the sun for long periods of time on purpose. Another Reddit user says, being told not to look directly at the sun is suspicious to me, given the state of the world. Looking directly at the sun is not practically achievable if you stay at home. If you lie on your side in the corner of your home and keep the blinds right down.
Rachel Curzon lives in Yorkshire. She is the recipient of an Eric Gregory Award, and her pamphlet, Faber New Poets 16, was published in 2016. Recent poems have appeared in The Poetry Review, Poetry London, The Rialto, The London Magazine, and elsewhere. She was a New Northern Poet for 2025.
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