All This Light We Live In by Chris Ellery Eclectic in technique, employing both traditional forms and free verse, these poems are unified by the motif of light and shadow that plays through each poem. The five-part arrangement is based on Pico's classic Renaissance work On the Dignity of Man: "And if he is not contented with the lot of any creature but takes himself up into the center of his own unity, then, made one spirit with God and settled in the solitary darkness of the Father, who is above all things, he will stand ahead of all things." The five stages of the volume represent the "chameleon" nature of the human being "sloughing its skin and transforming itself" in its struggle toward light.

About the author: Chris Ellery is Professor of English at Angelo State University in San Angelo, Texas. He received his PhD from Texas A&M University, MA from University of Arkansas, and BFA from Arkansas Tech University. His co-translation of Walid Ikhlassi's Whatever Happened to Antara, a collection of Syrian short stories, was published in 2004 by the Center for Middle East Studies, University of Texas Press. All This Light We Live In is his first book of poems, many of which have been published in various literary journals. click here to learn more about the author ISBN 0-9771797-2-9 Poetry / $14.95