Transfiguration upon a Dark Day

Chris Ellery

December 7, 2025

When somebody comes up

and out from the basement

and feels the first drop of rain

on the shoulder of grievance—

when somebody hears, 

for once, the elemental life

singing in the desolation

of hardscrabble thorn and willow—

when somebody sees, 

though seeing seems too much, 

the withered, uncut grasses

waving in a field along the arroyo, 

where something is pouring 

into the gray pelt of the day

unexpected

as the strobe of a new-born star

beaming with the mind of every dawn

to a muddy ditch 

held in a hollow 

of bent weeds, broken scrub, and trash—

then instantly

in the flare of one real moment,

ignorance and fear loose their hold,

and love becomes the seed that ever is

and the architect of every action, 

simple as saying yes to beauty, 

beauty that is not this, not this, 

nor this.

Chris Ellery is the author of six collections of poetry, including Canticles of the Body, an extended meditation that merges kundalini yoga and the Christian liturgical cycle. He is a member of the Fulbright Alumni Association and the Texas Institute of Letters.