“It Starts At Birth” begins by positioning a “newborn railing” in conflict with the awaiting woes of a life’s cycle. In his earliest collection, Against Which, the poet instead presents life’s hope and despair as divided, as oppositional.

Gay blesses the quotidian with a tone of mature joyfulness, elevating the ordinary to the realm of the sublime with his deft poetic treatment.īut Ross Gay did not achieve this conveyed sense of unabashed gratitude that embraces both the pleasures and hardships of existence overnight. His wistful writings are earthy, pulpy, and blooming, wild and winding tendrils of words that center on both the nurturance needed for sheer survival and the overflowing sustenance found in everyday reality. But throughout this subtle collection, the poet portrays the simple but layered experience of love, the incredible wonder of innocence, and the personal crumbling that can occur under the harsh pressure of experience. In certain moments, Gay’s poems act as knowing smiles and slow, solemn nods at others, his verses are instead wry winks.

This past April, Claremont Graduate School awarded Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award designed to acknowledge a mid-career poet who is reaching new heights of poetic excellence.Ĭatalog of Unabashed Gratitude is a compelling contemplative celebration, a quietly intense and refreshingly humble exploration of the connectivity between self, family, and community. Gay received grants from the Pennsylvania Council of the Arts and fellowships from both the Guggenheim Foundation and the Radcliffe Institute and is a former Cave Canem Workshop fellow and Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference scholar. Aside from teaching at Indiana University in Bloomington, Gay also acts as a board member for the Bloomington Community Orchard, a non-profit free-fruit-for-all food justice and joy project.Īs the author of three poetry collections, Against Which(2006), Bringing the Shovel Down (2011), and Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude (2015), Ross Gay has already garnered a remarkable record of achievements and recognition. Gay is a founding editor of the online sports magazine Some Call It Ballin’ and an active editor of the chapbook presses Q Avenue and Ledge Mule Press.

A formidable contemporary poet, Ross Gay earned his BA from Lafayette College, received his MFA in poetry at Sarah Lawrence, and was granted a PhD in American literature from Temple University.

Catalog of unabashed gratitude poem