A Small Needful Fact (Ross Gay) – Ari Sahagún

Contents:

• TEACH THIS POEM: "A SMALL NEEDFUL FACT" BY ROSS GAY
• POEM ANALYSIS: A SMALL NEEDFUL FACT BY ROSS GAY
• ROSS GAY POEMS
• ON ROSS GAY’S LIKELY DISPASSN
• WHY DO ROSS GAY TLE HIS POEM "A SMALL NEEDFUL FACT"?
• A SMALL NEEDFUL FACT (ROSS GAY)
• ROSS GAY

TEACH THIS POEM: "A SMALL NEEDFUL FACT" BY ROSS GAY

Ross Gay. Copyright © 2015 by Ross Gay.

‘A Small Needful Fact’ by Ross Gay is a short movg poem that suggts that there is still hope to be found after someone’s ath. In ncln, Gay scrib how the plants are workg our favor, makg easier “for to breathe.

‘A Small Needful Fact’ by Ross Gay is a fifteen-le poem that is ntaed wh a sgle stanza of text. Alln: om the begng of the poem, Gay allus to the life and impact of Eric Garner, a black man who was killed New York Cy 2014.

POEM ANALYSIS: A SMALL NEEDFUL FACT BY ROSS GAY

Why did Ross Gay wre ‘A Small Needful Fact? ’Ross Gay wrote this poem orr to honor Eric Garner’s life and the impact he had on those he knew. Gay may have wrten this poem om his own perspective, but knowg who the speaker is is not necsary for unrstandg the poem.

Rears who enjoyed ‘A Small Needful Fact’ should also nsir readg some other Ross Gay poems. "A Small Needful Fact" was wrten by Amerin poet and profsor Ross Gay rponse to the ath of Eric Garner, a Black man killed by a New York Cy police officer 2014. Gay's poem allus to the words as discs the "small needful fact" that Garner was once a horticulturist—and that the oxygen-producg plants he nurtured life may have ma easier for others to "breathe.

ROSS GAY POEMS

— Ross Gay's "Catalog of Unabashed Gratu" set to mic by Bon Iver. Ross Gay's Worldview.

Ross Gay on Robert Hayn.

ON ROSS GAY’S LIKELY DISPASSN

— Gay and other poets discs Robert Hayn's "Frerick Douglass, " a poem that may have helped spire "A Small Needful Fact. More Poems by Ross Gay.

By Ross Gay. Overview“A Small Needful Fact” by Ross Gay is a sgle-sentence poem that begs wh the tular fact: Eric Garner did some work the Parks and Recreatn Horticultural Department.

Gay published his first full-length llectn of poetry, Agast Which, 2006. Gay’s fourth full-length book of poetry, Catalog of Unabashed Gratu, won two prtig awards: the 2016 Kgsley Tufts Poetry Award and the 2015 Natnal Book Crics Circle Award. Shortly after this succs, Gay embarked on a project where he daily wrote down somethg that lighted him.

WHY DO ROSS GAY TLE HIS POEM "A SMALL NEEDFUL FACT"?

Gay also published another full-length book of poetry, Be Holdg, of 2021, Gay is a profsor at Indiana Universy, Bloomgton and at work on a “book-length say about garns, land, race, natn and the imagatn, lled This Black Earth” (“Core Faculty: Ross Gay.

Listen to Ross Gay read “A Small Needful Fact.

A SMALL NEEDFUL FACT (ROSS GAY)

The words and the protts that followed Garner’s ath are the backdrop for “A Small Needful Fact, ” a poem by Indiana Universy profsor and poet Ross Gay. Gay, whose book “Catalog of Unabashed Gratu” was published by the Universy of Ptsburgh Prs this year, said the poem was based on a fact about Garner that he read an obuary.

Much of the prs surroundg Garner has foced on the vlence of his ath, while the poem puts a need spotlight on his life, Gay said. Ross Gay is a poet, profsor at Indiana Universy and thor of the llectn “Catalog of Unabashed Gratu. Ross Gay is a garner and teacher livg Bloomgton, Indiana.

Ross Gays “A Small Needful Fact” is able to pture the sence of the bety and importance of a garn, along wh layers of a ep and plex referenc to the issue arisg today’s society; civil rights vlatns based on racial discrimatn.

ROSS GAY

In the poem, Gay scrib Eric Garner, an Ain Amerin man who was choked to ath by a police officer.