Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude by Ross Gay was my introduction to Ross Gay's work, and I liked it. I read this book for the The Stacks Book Club for April, and I enjoyed the episode that Traci did on the podcast with Clint Smith III.
This collection had a lot of nature and natural metaphors weaved in it that were incredibly lyrical, and it was difficult for me to understand. I think coming from an English major lens, it's difficult for me to read poetry because I've been taught to find the underlying meaning and that most words are symbolic of something else or have more than one meaning. I think some of these poems I was able to understand more than others.
My favorite poems in this collection were the titular poem, "weeping," and "ode to the puritan in me." I don't have the book with me as I write this review, but I do remember feeling particularly wowed when I read these poems or grateful for having read them at the time I did. Some of these poems were incredibly long (one was almost 10 pages), and while there were some poems that I liked more than others, I didn't really understand how these poems were cohesive as a collection, or if they were meant to be cohesive.
Have you read Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude or other work from Ross Gay? I'd love to hear what you thought about it!
Comments