Be Holdg — ROSS GAY

Contents:

• ROSS GAY
• ROSS GAY
• ROSS GAY POEMS
• THE BOOK OF DELIGHTS: POET AND GARNER ROSS GAY’S YEARLONG EXPERIMENT WILLFUL GLADNS
• ROSS GAY: POETRY SUMMARY
• READG BY ROSS GAY
• ROSS GAY: INTERVIEW—BE HOLDG, GRATU, DELIGHTS
• ROSS GAY’S UNFOLDG UNRSTANDG OF UNABASHED GRATU
• POSTS TAGGED: ROSS GAY
• POETRY READG: ROSS GAY
• ROSS GAY READG HIS POEMS – VIO – NATNAL POETRY MONTH

ROSS GAY

Gay is the -thor, wh Aimee Nezhumatathil, of the chapbook Lace and Pyre: Letters om Two Garns (2014), and wh Richard Wehrenberg, Jr., River (2014). ~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. “The Bloomgton Communy Orchard mt have spread s roots to Ross Gay, an Indiana Universy English profsor, as the anic poems his third llectn bear u, le by le, wh each h word or phrase.

’ Whether by ntemplatg the extraordary wh everyday acts (sleepg cloth, drkg water, buttong and unbuttong a shirt), or by entwg past and prent as he pays homage to parents, iends, even his former love, Gay embrac the natural cycl of life and ath as only an trospective garner and acplished poet n.

ROSS GAY

Gay's praise is Whmanque, full of manure, mulberry-staed purple bird poop, dirty cloth and haners, but also the pleasure of bare feet, of png a peach tree, of feedg a neighbor.... Gay even thanks you for readg , sayg I n't stop my gratu, which clus ar rear, you for stayg here wh me, for movg your lips jt so as I speak. "—Ts Taylor, NPR, All Thgs Consired“Almost no one has the fah Gay seems to have poetry's abily to tap grace om the happengs of his life....

”—Paris Review"I'm bowled over by how Ross Gay reach aga and aga toward statg what's betiful, what's sweet, what's most emotnally movg to him: he is genuely 'unabashed.

ROSS GAY POEMS

"—Fox Chase Review“Ross Gay offers up a mcled poetry of a thoand surpris, givg a powerful llectn that fireworks even the bleakt nights wh arncy and grace. ” —Stt Rsell Sanrs, thor of Earth Works: Selected Essays Ross Gay is the thor of two prev llectns, Agast Which and Brgg the Shovel Down. Gay, an award-wng poet, knows the value of formal nstrat: his experienc of ‘light, ’ rerd daily for a year, vary wily but yield revealg patterns through sights about everythg om nature and the body to race and masculy.

” —Bra Pickgs, Favore Books of 2019 “Ross Gay’s poems are ltle celebratns of joy, and this book of mi-says—each centerg around a particular 'light, ’ om sleepg your cloth to plantg tomato seedlgs to the nod of greetg between the only two black people a room—is a pure balm for your soul.

THE BOOK OF DELIGHTS: POET AND GARNER ROSS GAY’S YEARLONG EXPERIMENT WILLFUL GLADNS

Pick up, read for ten mut (start anywhere, really), put down, and you’ll fd that the lights of Gay’s world illumate the lights of yours, that his wonr is ntag and has ed you to epen your own. Llg magic unrcuts Gay’s craft, the effort that go to producg lerature that feels as fluent and faiar as a chat wh a close iend.

Gay’s loose-limbed sentenc diagram his light, partakg numero asis—some as paragraph-long parenthetils—and equally numero asis wh asis, as well as nted subordate cls that are the purview of timate nversatn, not wrten prose. They are cls and asis which, as Gay wr them, you feel his hand on your arm, you feel him lean toward you, nspiratorially or simply to emphasize his meang. Gay, who is the wner of the NBCC Award for Poetry, is here to provi jt that, wh says celebratg everythg om air quot to ndy wrappers to pickup basketball gam.

ROSS GAY: POETRY SUMMARY

” — About the Author In addn to The Book of Delights: Essays, Ross Gay is the thor of three books of poetry, cludg Catalog of Unabashed Gratu, wner of the 2015 Natnal Book Crics Circle Award and the 2016 Kgsley Tufts Poetry Award.

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.

Among Gay’s funny, poetic, philosophil lights: a iend’s unabashed e of air quot, cradlg a tomato seedlg aboard an airplane, the silent nod of acknowledgment between the only two black people a room.

READG BY ROSS GAY

But Gay never dismiss the plexi, even the terrors, of livg Ameri as a black man or the elogil and psychic vlence of our nsumer culture or the loss of those he lov. More than anythg else, though, Gay celebrat the bety of the natural world–his garn, the flowers peekg out of the siwalk, the hypnotic movements of a prayg mantis. The remarkable piec serve as a powerful and necsary remr that we n, and should, stake out a space our liv for & Reviews“Ross Gay’s eye lands upon wonr at every turn, bolsterg my belief the untls small miracl that surround .

’” —The New Yorker“Ross Gay’s poems are ltle celebratns of joy, and this book of mi-says—each centerg around a particular 'light, ’ om sleepg your cloth to plantg tomato seedlgs to the nod of greetg between the only two black people a room—is a pure balm for your soul. ” —Celte Ng for “You’ll fd that the lights of Gay’s world illumate the lights of yours, that his wonr is ntag and has ed you to epen your own.

” —Today“Ross Gay is able to e as ltle language as possible to populate a world where his memori are your memori, tertwed, reachg out of the pag.

ROSS GAY: INTERVIEW—BE HOLDG, GRATU, DELIGHTS

In a climate of ser thoughts about ser subjects, Ross Gay tly do light, brgg more poetry than ual to an say llectn that challeng the nventns of the form. It’s filled to the brim wh spir and the temporal allegiance wh dails that abis at the root of mortaly and spirual practice alike…In Gay’s ecumenil view, light is found the poignant and the lovg, the light and the shadows, and the tentnal procs of tung to all the plac — expected and unexpected — where may ri.

ROSS GAY’S UNFOLDG UNRSTANDG OF UNABASHED GRATU

His lights are wi-rangg and unrtraed, the greater of them often terpted by smaller on a cha of digrsns…Throughout the llectn, Gay’s voice is imable, his says as particular as a fgerprt…Stamped wh their own rhythm and equency, each say is equally thoughtful, gent, and tertg…Gay’s says sparkle wh charm, w, and lgh-out-loud funny bs jostlg cheek and jowl agast chatologil exploratns and philosophil ncerns. " — Orn"Everyone uld e a b more light their days (particularly durg the doldms of wter) and Gay, who is the wner of the NBCC Award for Poetry, is here to provi jt that, wh says celebratg everythg om air quot to ndy wrappers to pickup basketball gam. " — BookPage"The Book of Delights rtor pleasure as a se of ser thought and, even more, as a mo quiry self, while Gay’s wholome (but never sacchare) voice nvc that a mo of quiry, a way of thkg, too, n be a pleasure self.

" —Foreword Reviews, starred review“Ross Gay’s The Book of Delights remds of the wisdom of old songs: What a difference a day mak.

POSTS TAGGED: ROSS GAY

—Tayari Jon, btsellg thor of An Amerin Marriage“What I love most about the lights is how Ross Gay is able to e as ltle language as possible to populate a world where his memori are your memori, tertwed, reachg out of the pag. ” —Pam Hoton, thor of Contents May Have Shifted “Ross Gay is back to remd , a voice raspily ftooned wh bank shots and flowers and ndy and garlands of diamond-sharp sancti, that light is always l om wh. ” —Elizabeth Alexanr, btsellg thor of The Light of the World“What I love most about this book, and what I love about so much of Ross Gay’s work, is that gently nudg to take note of those small thgs that might otherwise elu our attentn.

” —Clt Smh, Natnal Poetry Slam champn, TED speaker, and thor of Countg Dcent “Each say Ross Gay's llectn is a gem, pictg the us of mdfulns, of tensely livg and gazg at the prent moments of life.

POETRY READG: 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.

Gay: For one, ’s jt fun to be a garn, for me, dreamg about what uld happen: that kd of mystil space, actually, of tryg to figure out what this thg that I do here uld be five years, that kd of strange dreamg space that is.

Tippett: We slightly shortened Ross Gay’s readg of “Loerg” here for time, but you n fd the whole say the uneded versn of the On Beg podst — available wherever you like to listen.

ROSS GAY READG HIS POEMS – VIO – NATNAL POETRY MONTH

Gay: And I thk also knows, or to know, that what is galvanizg, as well, is what we love, and has a kd of belief that — and also believ the thg — the book self believ that ’s elbowg s neighbor and beg like, “Right? Gay: My iend Shayla and I were talkg about jt what might be a nice project to do the days, and so we cid to start this thg lled The Tenrns Project.

Gay: “Among the most betiful thgs I’ve ever heard anyone say me om my stunt Bethany, talkg about her pedagogil aspiratns or ethos, how she wanted to be as a teacher, and what she wanted her classrooms to be. And that is what poet Ross Gay do ll them as he picks up, a century and a civilizatnal failure later, where Hse left off wh The Book of Delights (public library) — his yearlong experiment learng to notice, amid a world that so readily giv reasons to spair, the daily wellsprgs of light, or what Wenll Berry, his geo se for light as a untercultural force of ristance, lled the elemental pleasur “to which a man had to be acutely and tritely attentive, or he uld not have them at all.

Each day, begng on his forty-send birthday and endg on his forty-third, Gay posed one miature say — “sayett, ” he lls them, that lovely poet’s way of leaveng meang wh makhift language — about a particular light enuntered that day, swirled around his nscns to extract s maximum sweetns.

And so we learn, as passengers on Gay’s lightcraft, that is not jt a matter of payg attentn, but of takg attentn, of liberately shiftg , of divertg the glygen that pumps our spair mcle and clench the fist snng for danger, for that selfsame glygen is need to pump our light mcle and open the palm to hold joy. To be sure, this pacy for drkg the glor everythgns of the world is rooted regnizg the immense and improbable elemental light of one’s own existence — the nsequence of what Gay lls “the many thoand — ln!