Ross Gay’s Unfoldg Unrstandg of Unabashed Gratu – Tufts Poetry Awards

Contents:

• POEM, CATEGORY, RELATNSHIPS, GAY
• PLEASE RETURN THE WORD GAY
• DEFINITIONS FOR GAYGEɪGAY
• ROSS GAY’S UNFOLDG UNRSTANDG OF UNABASHED GRATU
• POETRY THAT IS GAY
• GAY
• ROSS GAY: POETRY LERARY ELEMENTS

POEM, CATEGORY, RELATNSHIPS, GAY

Explore the rich tradn of gay, lbian, bisexual, transgenr, and queer poets and poetry by browsg a selectn of poems & d.

As you might know, 's gay, lbian, bisexual, transgenr month here the good old U.

In the hope of promotg some qualy queer poetry and some qualy queer poems here on the, we've got a sectn of our Poetry Tool dited to "gay" poems, whatever that means. I mean what's our Poetry Tool already that's not tagged as a gay poem and should be?

PLEASE RETURN THE WORD GAY

Bt LGBTQ Poems1 I Sg the Body Electric by Walt Whman2 A Lany for Survival by Audre Lor3 Poem about My Rights by June Jordan4 The Aureole by Nikky Fney5 What Kd of Tim Are The by Adrienne Rich6 One Girl by Sappho7 A Lady by Amy Lowell8 Homosexualy by Frank O’Hara9 The Lyric In a Time of War by Eloise Kle Healy10 Who Said It Was Simple by Audre Lor11 FAQS. Homosexualy by Frank O’Hara.

‘Homosexualy’ scrib the act of g out as gay through the metaphor of an actor takg off his mask. They make g out and livg as a gay man or woman a much harr task than needs to be.

It is of the least possible ncern to me what homosexuals do wh one another the privacy of their hom.

DEFINITIONS FOR GAYGEɪGAY

But I want the word "gay" back. "Gay" ed to be an extremely eful word.

The general sense of the word is a batn of joyo, mirthful, bright, exuberant, cheerful, sportive, merry, light-hearted, lively, showy and Oxford English Dictnary requir an entire page to expla the etymology and nuanc of "gay" as has appeared lerature throughout history. The catns show that durg the 1600s began to acquire a few darker meangs and that some ed to mean "prostute" or to scribe someone addicted to social pleasure and dissipatn, but on balance the word kept fe wrote of "the gay mot that people the sunbeams.

ROSS GAY’S UNFOLDG UNRSTANDG OF UNABASHED GRATU

" Wordsworth his "O to Duty" claimed "a poet uld not but be gay / such a jocund pany.

" The poet Joseph Addison wrote of "Gay gild scen and shg prospects. " The last wrer to pen a signifint quotatn g "gay" wh s old nnotatns, acrdg to Bartlett, was William Butler Yeats, who died 1939.

In the early 1950s, then, homosexual men adopted the word and began g as group slang, but did make any sense?

POETRY THAT IS GAY

Homosexuals back then didn't seem any more or ls joyful, mirthful, bright, exuberant, cheerful, sportive, merry, light-hearted and pleasant than new meang for "gay" entered the popular vobulary as homosexuals beme creasgly visible and vol the 1960s and, effect, ed the word to lose every sha of meang ever once had. The word now forc to thk of sexual preferenc and behavr--if, for stance, I refer to someone as a "gay young man" a newspaper story, I had better be prepared to produce his boyiend or else fd myself a good lawyer.

School children now snort at the le "Once the saddle I ed to go gay" om the lugubr wboy lament, "The Streets of Laredo. " And probably there isn't anyone who n sg "Don we now our gay apparel" whout thkg of drag may argue that we have a tradn Ameri of allowg groups to ci what they want to be lled. " The are words we all need, "ol" and "perfect, " and I would fight to keep so, I am prepared to fight for "gay.

" I know this will be a bter battle and a lot of statnery will have to be thrown out if I w, and so why not offer a reasonable promise: I am prepared to yield the homosexual populatn the word "fabulo, " ee and will henceforth speak of fabulo rights, fabulo bars, fabulo health centers wh fabulo doctors. Now 's te that fabulo wh three syllabl is not que as tchy as gay, but there is always the shortened, slangy form, "fab. And if we all rporate to our vobulary, someday seventh grars everywhere will giggle helplsly and poke each other the ribs when they read Hart Crane's poem, "At Melville's Tomb:"Monody shall not wake the marer This fabulo shadow only the sea keepsI feel que gay jt thkg about .

GAY

0 / 1 votehomosexual, homophile, homo, gayadjectivomeone who practic homosexualy; havg a sexual attractn to persons of the same sexcheery, gay, sunnyadjectivebright and pleasant; promotg a feelg of cheer"a cheery hello"; "a gay sunny room"; "a sunny se"gay, jocund, jolly, jovial, merry, mirthfuladjectivefull of or showg high-spired merriment"when hearts were young and gay"; "a poet uld not but be gay, such a jocund pany"- Wordsworth; "the jolly crowd at the rnn"; "jolly old Sat Nick"; "a jovial old gentleman"; "have a merry Christmas"; "peals of merry lghter"; "a mirthful lgh"gayadjectivegiven to social pleasur often cludg dissipatn"led a gay Bohemian life"; "a gay old rogue wh an eye for the ladi"brave, braw, gayadjectivebrightly lored and showy"girls cked out brave new drs"; "brave banners flyg"; "`braw' is a Sttish word"; "a drs a b too gay for her years"; "birds wh gay plumage"gay, ftal, ftive, merryadjectiveofferg fun and gaiety"a ftive (or ftal) ocsn"; "gay and excg night life"; "a merry eveng"gay, queer, homophile(a)adjectivehomosexual or arog homosexual sirWiktnaryRate this fn:0. 0 / 0 votGaynounom the word gay, "joyful"; rare today.

Gaynoun. Also a shortened form of Gabriel, Gaylord and siar nam, or transferred om the surname.

GaynounAn English surname, origally a nickname for a cheerful or lively person. GaynounA female given name om English om the word gay, "joyful"; rare today.

ROSS GAY: POETRY LERARY ELEMENTS

GaynounA male given name om English. 0 / 0 votGAYadjectiveEtymology: gay, French.

Smooth flow the wav, the zephyrs gently play;Belda s’d, and all the world was gay.