The Book of Delights: Essays

Front Cover
Algonquin Books, Feb 12, 2019 - Literary Collections - 288 pages
“Ross Gay’s eye lands upon wonder at every turn, bolstering my belief in the countless small miracles that surround us.” —Tracy K. Smith, Pulitzer Prize winner and U.S. Poet Laureate

The winner of the NBCC Award for Poetry offers up a spirited collection of short lyric essays, written daily over a tumultuous year, reminding us of the purpose and pleasure of praising, extolling, and celebrating ordinary wonders.


Ross Gay’s The Book of Delights is a genre-defying book of essays—some as short as a paragraph; some as long as five pages—that record the small joys that occurred in one year, from birthday to birthday, and that we often overlook in our busy lives. His is a meditation on delight that takes a clear-eyed view of the complexities, even the terrors, in his life, including living in America as a black man; the ecological and psychic violence of our consumer culture; the loss of those he loves. Among Gay’s funny, poetic, philosophical delights: the way Botan Rice Candy wrappers melt in your mouth, the volunteer crossing guard with a pronounced tremor whom he imagines as a kind of boat-woman escorting pedestrians across the River Styx, a friend’s unabashed use of air quotes, pickup basketball games, the silent nod of acknowledgment between black people. And more than any other subject, Gay celebrates the beauty of the natural world—his garden, the flowers in the sidewalk, the birds, the bees, the mushrooms, the trees.

This is not a book of how-to or inspiration, though it could be read that way. Fans of Roxane Gay, Maggie Nelson, and Kiese Laymon will revel in Gay’s voice, and his insights. The Book of Delights is about our connection to the world, to each other, and the rewards that come from a life closely observed. Gay’s pieces serve as a powerful and necessary reminder that we can, and should, stake out a space in our lives for delight. 
 

Contents

1 My Birthday Kinda
1
2 Inefficiency
4
3 Flower in the Curb
8
4 Blowing It Off
10
5 Hole in the Head
14
6 Remission Still
17
7 Praying Mantis
20
8 The Negreeting
23
53 Church Poets
147
54 Public Lying Down
148
55 Babies Seriously
152
56 My Life My Life My Life My Life in the Sunshine
154
57 Incorporation
155
58 Botan Rice Candy
157
59 Understory
160
The Duff Between Us
162

9 The HighFive from Strangers Etc
27
10 Writing by Hand
31
11 Transplanting
34
12 Nicknames
38
13 But Maybe
41
14 Joy Is Such a Human Madness
43
15 House Party
51
16 Hummingbird
55
17 Just a Dream
57
18 Thats Some Bambi Shit
61
The Gratitudes
63
20 Tap Tap
66
21 Coffee without the Saucer
68
22 Lily on the Pants
70
23 Sharing a Bag
72
24 Umbrella in the Café
74
25 Beast Mode
77
26 Airplane Rituals
79
27 Weirdly Untitled
82
28 Pecans
85
29 The DoOver
88
30 Infinity
91
31 Ghost
94
32 Nota Bene
98
33 Love Me in a Special Way
101
34 Stay by Lisa Loeb
104
35 Stacking Delights
107
36 Donny Hathaway on Pandora
111
37 To Spread the Sweetness of Love
113
38 Baby Baby Baby
116
39 REPENT OR BURN
118
40 Giving My Body to the Cause
120
41 Among the Rewards of My Sloth
122
42 Not Grumpy Cat
124
43 Some Stupid Shit
126
44 Not Only
128
WE BUY GOLD
129
46 Reading Palms
131
47 The Sanctity of Trains
134
48 Bird Feeding
136
49 Kombucha in a Midcentury Glass
138
50 Hickories
141
51 Annoyed No More
142
52 Toto
144
61 Its Just the Day Im Having
164
62 The Purple Cornets of Spring
165
63 The Volunteer
167
Two or Three Cents on the Virtues of the Poetry Reading
169
65 Found Things
172
66 Found Things 2
174
67 Cuplicking
176
68 Bobblehead
178
69 The Jenky
181
70 The Crows Ablutions
184
71 Flowers in the Hands of Statues
187
72 An Abundance of Public Toilets
189
73 The Wave of Unfamiliars
193
74 Not for Nothing
195
75 Bindweed Delight?
197
76 Dickhead
200
77 Ambiguous Signage Sometimes
202
78 Heart to Heart
206
Bees on Bridge
209
80 Tomato on Board
212
81 PurpleHanded
215
Kayte Young Phone Number 5558675309
216
83 Still Processing
219
84 Fireflies
221
85 My Scythe Jack
223
86 Pawpaw Grove
225
87 Loitering
229
88 Touched
233
89 Scat
236
90 Get Thee to the Nutrient Cycle
241
91 Pulling Carrots
244
92 Filling the Frame
246
93 Reckless Air Quotes
247
94 Judith Irene Gay Aged Seventysix Today
249
95 Rothko Backboard
251
96 The Marfa Lights
253
97 The Carport
255
99 Black Bumblebees
262
100 Grown
265
101 Cocobaby
266
102 My Birthday
269
Acknowledgments
272
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About the author (2019)

Ross Gay is the author of three books of poetry, including Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude, winner of the 2015 National Book Critics Circle Award and the 2016 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award. Catalog was also a finalist for the 2015 National Book Award in Poetry, the Ohioana Book Award, the Balcones Poetry Prize, the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, and was nominated for an NAACP Image Award. He is a founding editor, with Karissa Chen and Patrick Rosal, of the online sports magazine Some Call It Ballin’ and founding board member of the Bloomington Community Orchard, a nonprofit, free-fruit-for-all food justice and joy project. Gay has received fellowships from the Cave Canem Foundation, the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, and the Guggenheim Foundation. He teaches at Indiana University.
 

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