'The Book Of Delights': How Ross Gay Fds Joy In Small Thgs : Co Swch : NPR

ross gay photo

Award-wng thor and poet Ross Gay turned a 25-send basketball clip to a book-length poem. Gay’s poem, “Be Holdg,” stemmed om him watchg a vio of former Philalphia 76ers forward Juli Ervg, makg a reverse layup the fourth game of the 1980 NBA Fals. “Reverse layup” do not do jtice to the moment. Ervg...

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ROSS GAY

In his first say llectn sce 'The Book of Delights,' Ross Gay explor how joy is more plited than we thk—and more attaable. * ross gay photo *

Ross Gay is terted Gay wants to unrstand Gay is cur about Gay studi joy. ~Ross Gay is the thor of four books of poetry: Agast Which; Brgg the Shovel Down; Be Holdg, wner of the PEN Amerin Lerary Jean Ste Award; and Catalog of Unabashed Gratu, wner of the 2015 Natnal Book Crics Circle Award and the 2016 Kgsley Tufts Poetry Award. Poet Ross Gay explor the qutns – What c joy?

Wrten over the urse of the panmic, Gay ponrs joy, fg ls as the absence of sorrow and rather as our rponse to . Jt look at the way the garners share their extra vegetabl, Gay not.

ROSS GAY’S SECRETS FOR LIVG A MORE JOYFUL LIFE

* ross gay photo *

And the are jt a few of endls exampl, Gay tells CNN. CNN spoke wh Gay prr to his new book’s release.

There’s an say Ross Gay’s new llectn, Incg Joy, that begs wh a discsn of his favore sports book, John Edgar Wiman’s Hoop Roots, a memoir told through the thor’s lifelong relatnship wh basketball. Over the next eleven pag, Gay, a longtime hoop lover himself, offers a medatn on the bety of the pickup game, and how a good urt is a microsm of mocracy. ”Gay, a 48-year-old poet and profsor at Indiana Universy, has ma a reer of explorg the wonr to be found our everyday liv, notably his btsellg 2019 say llectn, The Book of Delights.

TAKG FLIGHT: ROSS GAY’S ‘BE HOLDG’ TELLS A BLACK STORY THROUGH PHOTO AND LYRIC

On the Co Swch podst, Ross Gay reflects on his 2019 llectn The Book of Delights, the difficulty of allowg yourself to be moved, and why he thks 's important to e the word "love." * ross gay photo *

”Book ver of “Incg Joy” by Ross Gay. Courty of Ross GayGQ: A word that up aga and aga your work is the word practice.

Ross Gay: I started to thk about that word when I was dog The Book of Delights.

POET ROSS GAY EXPLOR A JOY RMED BY EP SORROW

Award-wng thor and poet Ross Gay turned a 25-send basketball clip to a book-length poem. Gay’s poem, “Be Holdg, ” stemmed om him watchg a vio of former Philalphia 76ers forward Juli Ervg, makg a reverse layup the fourth game of the 1980 NBA Fals. Ervg’s show-stoppg move is the first image Gay illtrated for his Zoom dience at the creative wrg partment’s first stallment of the “Yawp!

Imag like Ervg’s are the basis for the story Gay tells “Be Holdg. Each image is one of what Gay refers to as a “movement” the poem. “I uld see a uple movements ( the poem), ” Gay said.

HOW ROSS GAY FDS JOY IN THE SMALLT OF 'DELIGHTS'

“(The Ebo) people who were enslaved were brought over here and they were like ‘We’re not gonna be enslaved, ’ and they walked to the water and they flew back home, ” Gay said. However, is an entirely different experience when Gay reads .

In one of his most famo poems, A Small Needful Fact, Ross Gay remembers Eric Garner, who was choked to ath by a New York Cy police officer 2014. Gay not that Garner worked as a garner once, and “ all likelihood / he put gently to the earth / some plants which most likely / … ntue to grow. Gay, who teach at Indiana Universy, won the Natnal Book Crics Circle Award and the Kgsley Tufts Poetry Prize for his 2015 Catalog of Unabashed Gratu.

And om , Gay observ the world. Leah Rumack spoke to Gay this past fall. Ross Gay: Jt to be very real, the book ed to be lled Flight.

ROSS GAY: A WAY WH WORDS

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.

To which Ross Gay rponds word and ed, how n we not be joyful, pecially a moment like this?

ROSS GAY

We practice tenrns and mercy part bee to unrstand that we are all sufferg is one qualy of what Ross Gay lls “adult joy.

Ross Gay: It is joy by which the labor that will make the life that I want, possible.

*BEAR-MAGAZINE.COM* ROSS GAY PHOTO

Ross Gay’s Secrets for Livg a More Joyful Life | GQ .

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