catalog of unabashed gratitude by ross gay

Ross Gay is absolute life! catalog of unabashed gratitude is a book of joy and revelry in life. You feel the wonder and grace in the words, and look up to a sunnier world after reading. It’s frankly uplifting. There are laden fruit trees, birds going about their birdy business, friends, abundant gardens, happy strangers. Life is in these pages. Very few people feel the joy Gay seems to walk through life with, but he’s sharing it with all of us. Buy here.

From “wedding poem”

Friends I am here to modestly report / seeing in an orchard / in my town / a goldfinch kissing / a sunflower / again and again / dangling upside down / by its tiny claws / steadying itself by snapping open / like an old-timer fan / its wings / again and again, / until, swooning, it tumbled off . . .

From “catalog of unabashed gratitude”

. . . Take this bowl of blackberries from the garden. / The sun has made them warm. / I picked them just for you. I promise / I will try to stay on my side of the couch. . .

From “burial”

You’re right, you’re right, / the fertilizer’s good— / it wasn’t a gang of dullards / came up with chucking / a fish in the planting hole / or some midwife got lucky / with the placenta— / oh, I’ll plant a tree here!— / and a sudden flush of quince / and jam enough for months—yes, / the magic dust our bodies become / casts spells on the roots / about which someone else / could tell you the chemical processes, / but it’s just magic to me, . . .