In THE BOOK OF DELIGHTS, award-wng poet Ross Gay offers up a genre-fyg volume of lyric says wrten over one tumultuo year. His first nonfictn book is a rerd of the small joys we often overlook our by liv. Among Gay’s funny, poetic, philosophil lights: a iend’s unabashed e of air quot, cradlg a tomato seedlg aboard an airplane, the silent nod of acknowledgment between the only two Black people a room. But Gay never dismiss the plexi, even the terrors, of livg Ameri as a Black man, the elogil and psychic vlence of our nsumer culture, or the loss of those he lov. More than anythg else, though, Gay celebrat the bety of the natural world --- his garn, the flowers peekg out of the siwalk, the hypnotic movements of a prayg mantis.
Contents:
- HOW ROSS GAY FDS JOY IN THE SMALLT OF 'DELIGHTS'
- ROSS GAY
- THE BOOK OF DELIGHTS: POET AND GARNER ROSS GAY’S YEARLONG EXPERIMENT WILLFUL GLADNS
HOW ROSS GAY FDS JOY IN THE SMALLT OF 'DELIGHTS'
* ross gay book of delights excerpts *
Today, we're stg down wh the wrer Ross Gay. So many thgs light Ross Gay: handma fy srv and loerg, the joy of rryg a heavy bag between two people, paw paws and even weeds. This summer, I reread yet aga and found myself medatg on a sire Gay had voiced: wantg to be softer a world so ready to sharpen and to make hard.
So, a recent terview, I talked to Gay about that sire, as well as the role of joy daily life, the difficulty of allowg yourself to be moved, and why he thks 's important to e the word "love. The Book of Delights Quot by Ross Gay. Ross Gay.
ROSS GAY
Ross Gay,. Ross Gay spent a year wrg daily says about thgs that light him. NPR's Ari Shapiro talks wh Gay about some of the says clud his new book, The Book of Delights.
The wrer Ross Gay spent a year dog that. He llected about 100 of those says "The Book Of Delights," and this seems like a good moment to rebroadst our nversatn about that book om early last year.(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST)ROSS GAY: Well, one of the thgs that I realized is that - the begng, I thought, oh, man.
I'm gog to, like, have to look around, like, be, like, really attentive.SHAPIRO: Jt scrounge for lights.GAY: Yeah, scrounge for lights. You're like...GAY: I have to clear the ck.SHAPIRO: I have too much of a backlog.GAY: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
THE BOOK OF DELIGHTS: POET AND GARNER ROSS GAY’S YEARLONG EXPERIMENT WILLFUL GLADNS
Like, my sort of attentn got cultivated.SHAPIRO: When you spent that ltle time every day focg jt on that thg that ma you feel love, light, did affect the rt of your day?GAY: Absolutely. So I beme acutely aware that light is sort of a maniftatn of terpennce.SHAPIRO: Yeah.GAY: You know, like, the simple and the subtle and the almost accintal - but that's the wrong word - kdns that we're nstantly the midst of.SHAPIRO: Like, one of them that you wre about is a high-five om a stranger.GAY: Totally.SHAPIRO: You want to read an excerpt om that?GAY: Totally.(Readg) So I settled to a ffee shop, took my notebooks out.
Good job to you - high-five.SHAPIRO: (Lghter).GAY: (Readg) You better believe I high-fived that child her pre-ripped Def Leppard shirt and her ty-bty Doc Martens, for I love - I light - unequivolly pleasant public physil teractns wh strangers. We should all unrstand this by now.SHAPIRO: I feel like I get to know you so well readg this almost more than I would if I read a memoir or an tobgraphy bee 's like, I don't need to know where you went to high school...GAY: Yeah.SHAPIRO: ...Or what your passns were as a kid.
It feels very timate.GAY: Yeah.