Indivisible, Irreducible, Invisible

Chris Ellery

May 3, 2026

for Barbara Parker

I would like to go about this world

loving it like the wind, 

like a gentle wind,

kite lifting, seed bearing wind.

Being everywhere all at once, 

unwearied, intimate 

with the form of every form, 

always in the open,

cooling every overheated heart, 

touching everything and everyone

the same, 

so that no one and no thing

ever feels 

unwanted.

If I kiss the face of a lake,

the clouds are not jealous.

If I spend some quality time

with the mountain peaks,

the evergreens are fulfilled.

If I fill the sails

of some sleek schooner,

happy waves will carry the news.

What worm would wish

(as many lovers do)

to spin some silky Aeolian bag

to hold me inside

all for itself forever?

Vulture and crane might claim 

this buoyancy as theirs alone,

but no matter how far and how high

those soar and glide, 

still every bee and sparrow

has the freedom to sing

of the wonderful things

we do every day

together. 

Chris Ellery is author of six poetry collections, most recently One Like Silence and Canticles of the Body. He has received the X.J. Kennedy Award for Creative Nonfiction, the Dora and Alexander Raynes Prize for Poetry, the Betsy Colquitt Award, and the Texas Poetry Prize. He is a member of the Fulbright Alumni Association, the Texas Institute of Letters, and the Texas Association of Creative Writers.