Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Lucia Maria Perillo’s "Revelation" is a meditation on the cyclical nature of existence, the beauty found in the fallen, and the way light and darkness are inseparable forces. The poem’s speaker encounters a scene of everyday life—prostitutes shopping for groceries in a Nevada town—yet the moment unfolds into something transcendent. Through vivid imagery and a philosophical tone, the poem challenges conventional notions of morality, redemption, and damnation, suggesting instead a universe where endings and beginnings dissolve into a continuous motion of light and shadow.

The poem opens with a specific setting: “I hit Tonopah at sunset, / just when the billboards advertising the legal brothels / turn dun-colored as the sun lies / down behind the strip mine.” Tonopah, a small Nevada town with a history rooted in mining and vice, serves as the perfect backdrop for the poem’s themes. The mention of “legal brothels” immediately introduces the idea of societal outcasts, while the “strip mine” reinforces the imagery of extraction, depletion, and erosion—both literal and metaphorical. The description of the sun “lying down” behind the mine personifies the landscape, making it seem weary, as if day itself is succumbing to exhaustion.

The next lines bring the prostitutes into focus: “And the whores were in the Safeway, / buying frozen foods and Cokes / for the sitters before their evening shifts.” The detail of the women shopping for groceries reframes them not as symbols of sin or spectacle but as ordinary people, caretakers preparing for work. The mundane act of purchasing “frozen foods and Cokes” undercuts any moralistic assumptions, positioning these women within the same domestic rhythms as anyone else. The line also subtly acknowledges the reality of their lives—these are working women with responsibilities beyond their profession.

The speaker then acknowledges the prostitutes? minor transgressions: “Yes they gave excuses to cut / ahead of me in line, probably wrote bad checks.” The tone here is casual, almost amused; these acts—cutting in line, possibly writing bad checks—are framed as small, human failings rather than moral failings. This leads to the speaker’s surprising declaration: “but still they were lovely at that hour, / their hair newly washed and raveling.” The word “lovely” suggests a moment of grace, as if the evening light grants these women an almost sacred glow. The phrase “newly washed and raveling” evokes both renewal and unraveling—suggesting that beauty is always in flux, always on the verge of coming undone.

At this point, the poem shifts from observation to revelation: “If you follow any of the fallen far enough— / the idolaters, the thieves and liars— / you will find that beauty.” The phrase “follow any of the fallen far enough” suggests that morality is not fixed, that those deemed sinners or outcasts are not beyond redemption but instead part of a greater continuum. The inclusion of “idolaters, the thieves and liars” aligns these figures with biblical transgressors, yet rather than condemnation, the poem suggests that beauty exists precisely within their journey.

The beauty the speaker describes is “cataclysmic,” a word that implies both destruction and awe-inspiring transformation. It is “rising off the face of the burning landscape / just before the appearance of the beast.” The “burning landscape” reinforces the harsh, almost apocalyptic setting, but it also suggests purification, as if this fiery moment is a threshold to something beyond. The “appearance of the beast” alludes to biblical imagery, particularly the Book of Revelation, where the beast signals the end times. Yet, rather than presenting this as an omen of doom, the poem frames it as part of a necessary cycle—beauty appearing in the moments before reckoning.

The next lines introduce a profound metaphor: “Like a Möbius strip: you go round once / and you come out on the other side.” The Möbius strip, a continuous loop with only one surface, becomes a symbol for existence itself—suggesting that life and death, sin and redemption, are not opposites but part of the same unbroken journey. This leads to the poem’s boldest assertion: “There is no alpha, no omega, / no beginning and no end.” This rejection of linear time, and of traditional ideas of judgment, further reinforces the cyclical nature of existence. It dismantles religious notions of absolute damnation or salvation, presenting instead a world where all things flow into one another.

The final lines turn back to the physical world: “Only the ceaseless swell / and fall of sunlight on these rusted hills.” The phrase “ceaseless swell and fall” mirrors the infinite looping of the Möbius strip, emphasizing the eternal motion of life. The “rusted hills” recall the mining imagery from the opening, reinforcing the idea that even landscapes bear the scars of extraction and time. Yet despite their rust, they are still part of the rhythm of light and darkness.

The closing thought offers a radical vision of grace: “Watch the way brilliance turns / on darkness. How can any of us be damned.” The imperative “Watch” urges the reader to pay attention, to recognize that illumination and shadow are not enemies but partners in an endless interplay. The final question—“How can any of us be damned”—is not just rhetorical but revelatory. If darkness inevitably gives way to brilliance, if the fallen are simply on a different arc of the same journey, then the entire concept of damnation collapses.

"Revelation" is a poem that resists easy moral binaries. Through its stark yet luminous imagery, Perillo suggests that beauty is not reserved for the virtuous but is instead woven into the fabric of everything—including the so-called fallen. The Möbius strip becomes the perfect metaphor for this worldview, where life is not a straight path toward judgment but an infinite, looping journey. In this vision, even the most tarnished figures are part of the ceaseless motion of light and darkness, and the idea of eternal damnation becomes meaningless. Instead, what remains is the inevitability of transformation—the light always returning, no matter how deep the night.

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