Contents:
ROSS GAY
“Be Holdg” om the book Be Holdg, by Ross Gay, © 2020.
Through a kd of lyric rearch, or lyric medatn, Ross Gay nnects Dr. And how that reachg might be somethg like & Reviews“The brilliant fourth book om Gay... ”— Publishers Weekly starred review“Ross Gay’s work is not only celebratory.
”—RHINO“In turng an stance of athletic prows and grace to an expansive metaphoric visn, Gay pulls off a syntactil tour force.
WNSG THE UNWNSABLE: ON BE HOLDG BY ROSS GAY
”—Baltimore Art“Gay’s poem theoriz an ethics that is pably polil, and s ebullient gratu, fore and aft, reads not jt as an overflow of thankfulns but as a ncrete practice of the ethics Gay suggts. Ross Gay tak one fluid human gture and through expands the lungs of personal and munal history so they might hold all joy, terror, and vlence of this world.
In this terrible era, Ross Gay has wrten a book that breath this broken world and then returns to so we might breathe too.
Ross Gay has once aga proven himself one of our greatt poets. Aga and aga, the betiful note he holds and hands, that’s what Ross Gay be sayg. Rarely do a book-length poem hold s rear as tenrly and timately as Ross Gay’s Be Holdg (2020) held me.
THE BOOK OF DELIGHTS BY ROSS
When I say this poem is powerful and movg, the words fall short; this is a poem to experience, to read out loud, to cherish, to any good poet would, Gay plays wh language and meang, unpackg for his rear the signifitn of words like “shot” and “hold. ” Gay’s figurative language and poetic vic force his rear to nsir the potential vlence of our gaze, particularly when is unved. Biblgraphy:Gay, Ross.
” In Be Holdg, a masterful, book-length poem wrten stream-of-nscns uplets, Ross Gay wants his rears to know that Juli Ervg – aka Doctor J – was one of those athlet. Early on, Gay seems to be wrg an extend o to “The Doctor, ” but the poet tak advantage of Ervg’s super-human body ntrol and hang-time while fishg The Lay-Up (hoops’ fans love the signatns: Michael Jordan gave The Shot; LeBron gave The Block) – a tly amazg move durg the 1980 playoffs that would have ma Isaac Newton doubt the ratnal laws of the universe – to ntextualize Ervg’s greatns. So do Gay.