![]() ![]() This poem discusses Gay’s relationship with his father, his death in the hospital, and his imagined resurrection in a plum tree Gay tends as he “peer out from the sweet meat / with his hands pressed against the purple skin / like cathedral glass” (Lines 56-58). Published in Solstice: A Magazine of Diverse Voices in 2013, “Burial” is also collected in Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude. ![]() The poem ends with a line suggesting that those clustered around the fig tree will become joined, “strangers maybe / never again.” ![]() Also apparent are the love of nature, people, Gay’s awareness of his cultural ancestors, and his interest in building community. This poem also shows Gay’s signature short line style and quick pace: the poem is one long sentence. Fig trees are alluded to in “Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude,” creating a holistic sense to the collection’s start and finish. Set in Philadelphia, the poem centers on Gay’s meditation on a fig tree in the city and what it means to the people who eat its fruit. Furthermore, nature brings about unnatural aspects causing greater control of forces in nature, and outside of the natural realm. National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry, 2015. Throughout Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude by Ross Gay, Gay shows how nature controls emotional responses, forces and other higher or more powerful things. Originally published in American Poetry Review, this is the first poem in Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude. Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude is a sustained meditation on that which goes away- loved ones, the seasons, the earth as we know it - that tries to find solace in the processes of the garden and the orchard. ![]()
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