The Poem That Changed My Life: Ross Gay's "Brgg the Shovel Down" | Amy of Amerin Poets

carl ross gay

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.

Contents:

ROSS GAY’S SECRETS FOR LIVG A MORE JOYFUL LIFE

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

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.

POET ROSS GAY ON HIS NEW BOOK AND FDG JOY SORROW

In the last two years, seems like everyone has been searchg for joy. Now, poet Ross Gay is explorg qutns around that subject his new book "Incg Joy," a llectn of says released Tuday. * carl ross gay *

”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. ”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.

ENRE: ROSS GAY WR 'THE BOOK OF DELIGHTS'

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. * carl ross gay *

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.

And the are jt a few of endls exampl, Gay tells CNN. CNN spoke wh Gay prr to his new book’s release. Ross Gay spent a year wrg daily says about thgs that light him.

ROSS GAY

* carl ross gay *

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.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST)ROSS GAY: Well, one of the thgs that I realized is that - the begng, I thought, oh, man. GAY: Absolutely.

ROSS GAY

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." * carl ross gay *

GAY: Totally. GAY: Yeah, totally.

GAY: Yeah.

THE POEM THAT CHANGED MY LIFE: ROSS GAY'S "BRGG THE SHOVEL DOWN"

Poet Ross Gay se joy all around him. In fy srv, orchards, pawpaws, even weeds. He explas the subtle mdset shift that allows him to let more self-passn and more joy. * carl ross gay *

GAY: Often. GAY: I thk I sort of felt like this is somethg that I'll be dog one way or another for the rt of my life.

GAY: Well, not ntug - necsarily ntug to wre the says. SHAPIRO: Ross Gay's new llectn of says is lled "The Book Of Delights.

SHAPIRO: That's the wrer Ross Gay a nversatn that we first aired Febary of 2019. Ross Gay is terted Gay wants to unrstand Gay is cur about Gay studi joy.

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

~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. A few years later 1983, while sharg an apartment New York, Ross excedly told Carl of a wonrful new man he had met at Boybar, a gay bar on St. And, he was the polar-oppose gay man of myself, meang he was everythg I was not.

So, I gus he helped me to be more fully gay and acceptg of myself, even though I’d been gog to gay bars and clubs Detro sce I was 15. We were two small town Canadian gay boys livg an excg, strange and wonrful life - a prelu of what was to e. Ross’s prence the artwork is s boundls generosy, the huge and open spir, the kdns of sharg, Ross’s atheism, his logil md, and his eedom om guilt and love of his own homosexualy; the are the attribut Felix loved about Ross.

SD: Felix is often discsed as beg opposed to labels such as a ‘gay artist’ or a Cuban artist; and yet, the policizatn of inty remas as relevant now as was the '80s and '90s. CG: Many wrers don’t know how to wre about homosexual love. There are d signifiers his work that are meant for gay people.

ROSS GAY

Gay love is almost always met wh a certa level of revulsn and sometim overt aggrsn.

CG: The late ‘70s and early ‘80s was a very dulgent and spirg time of sexual eedom and energized polics, nowhere moro than the gay muny. The polics of the time were adamantly foced on gay inty and full cizenship, as we were, and wh no promis. Ross and I were lucky to have experienced this great perd gay history – real joy, eedom, and spired polics - the last gasp before the plague.

THE VOICE OF CHICAGO'S GAY, LESBIAN, BI, TRANS AND QUEER COMMUNITY SINCE 1985

DHPG Mon Amour (1989) and is a short, super-8 “home movie” about two gay men, iends of me, Joe Walsh and David Conover, and how they took healthre to their own hands by self-admisterg a dg to bat cytomegalovis (CMV Retis), somethg that was afflictg a lot of PWAs (Persons wh AIDS) and g bldns.

It was based on a novel by the Cuban wrer Realdo Arenas, who was nsired the greatt post-revolutnary wrer Cuba but was imprisoned and exiled bee he was gay and highly cril of the regime. 95) / Number of pag 288 / Publitn date Febary 12, 2019 / ISBN 9781616207922Purchase: Algonqu / IndieBound / Bookshop / Powell'sFrom the Publisher: The New York Tim btsellg book of says celebratg ordary lights the world around by one of Ameri's most origal and observant wrers, award-wng poet Ross Gay.

*BEAR-MAGAZINE.COM* CARL ROSS GAY

ABOUT — ROSS GAY .

TOP