Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude

Ross Gay is a contemporary American poet, and Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude, published in 2015, is his third full-length book of poetry. “Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude” is the penultimate poem in this award-winning collection. In the poem, Gay uses multiple images that appear in other poems throughout the collection to create a collage-like effect, which sums up the collection. However, the poem can also be read on its own without this knowledge. Written in a free-form style, without a specific meter and rhyme, the poem is noted for its changes in language, especially how it moves from more elevated diction to the colloquial and slang. Besides the commonality of Gay’s signature style, this poem is also indicative of Gay’s subject matter of joy. For Gay this means addressing how to grapple with the mixture of tragedy and exaltation that makes up daily life. Although many have used this poem as evidence that Gay is a “happy” writer, Gay himself pointed out to interviewer David Naimon that “[w]hen I’m talking about joy […] I’m talking about some kind of feeling that emerges when we are trying to hold each other’s sorrow, and trying to be with each other in the midst of, in the face of, etc.