The Poem That Changed My Life: Ross Gay's "Brgg the Shovel Down" - Not so very long ago—five years perhaps—I opened the pag of a book and began to read a poem that entirely renfigured my notns of what a poem n do. The poem was Ross Gay’s “Brgg the Shovel Down.” And, as is so often the se wh world-transformg revelatns, the enunter also h me wh the force of profounst rememberg: Here was an stance, a glor, exfoliatg stance, of all I had always hoped and believed about the ways and wherewhal of art.
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ROSS GAY
"Brgg the Shovel Down" om Brgg the Shovel Down, by Ross Gay, © 2011. Praise & Reviews“Ross Gay is some kd of brilliant latter-day troubadour whose poetry is shaped not only by yearng but also play and scty, melancholy and tensy. ”—Terrance Hay“Wh masterful rhythms and multiple ton, Ross Gay gets down to bare-bon difficulty: love often tged wh grief, vlence, and ceptn.
As wh his 'ltle dreamer, ltle hard hat, ltle heartbeat, ' Gay's poems are valized by the poet's ache for passn and tth. ”—Ira Sadoff“Blendg classic craft wh ntemporary subject matter, poet Ross Gay's new llectn packs a wallop s urgency to munitn the joys and sorrows of life. Gay's poems are 'small lanterns' of 'lightg' and more.
”—ForeWord Magaze“Gay... Is the voice which Gay shears off the 'poetic' trappgs and jt lets his language 'stutter and thm, " and he puts a poem lled 'Say It. ”—New York Tim“The language Gay brgs to his poems is h and vg....
THE POEM THAT CHANGED MY LIFE: ROSS GAY'S "BRGG THE SHOVEL DOWN"
”—Wt Branch“Gay's language and imagery are exquise. The poem was Ross Gay’s “Brgg the Shovel Down.
But Gay epens our sense of extribily by turng and turng his tale. Gay is a poet of nscience, who echo Tomas Transtromer's 'We do not surrenr. Ross Gay teach poetry at Indiana Universy and is the thor of the poetry llectns Agast Which, Brgg the Shovel Down, Lace and Pyre: Letters om Two Garns (wh Aimee Nezhumatathil), River (wh Rose Wehrenberg), Catalog of Unabashed Gratu, and the say llectn The Book of Delights.