Dark Camp

Chris Ellery

June 7, 2026

When it came time to make our camp, we boys 

looked always for a clearing in the woods, 

as we were taught, a circle circumferencing 

a center far enough away from trees 

that sparks could pose no danger rising from 

a campfire kindled with the rich pine knots 

or cedar bark and fed the seasoned limbs 

of storm-stripped hickory and oak, which we 

watched burning, burning to a glowing bed 

of coals. There were some evenings following

a long day’s hike when we could find no space 

to serve our fire. Then we would drop from sheer 

fatigue in woods so dense we sparked no flame, 

we saw no stars, we slept on roots like logs, 

we said, beneath the high and mighty arms.

Chris Ellery is the author of six poetry collections, including Elder Tree, which is strongly influenced by British and American Romanticism and Celtic spirituality. Longtime professor of English at Angelo State University, now retired, he is a member of the Texas Institute of Letters, the Fulbright Alumni Association, and Phi Kappa Phi.