Encounters of the Ross Gay Kind
Michael Jackson’s Thriller blared through the movable walls at Colorado State University’s Lory Student Center, but the music could not stop Ross Gay from reading his poetry. A dance party was happening next door on the other side of the flimsy wall.
Ross Gay embraced the music, and was delighted and smiled. He looked at the audience and continued to read louder. Thriller was only a minor obstacle. He embraced the chance collaboration. The intrusion would have unnerved any other poet.
When it came time to sign books, an enormous line snaked around the large auditorium. Ross Gay sat down and talked and connected to each of us for a long time. Gay was not in a rush.
In addition to his poetry, I was interested in his involvement with the Bloomington Community Orchard, as he is a founding member. The orchard is a non-profit, free-fruit-for-all food justice and joy project.
All orchards are magical to me. Long ago, my future husband pruned Southern Vermont Orchard’s 10,000 apple trees during the winter months. He took me camping and swimming in the favorite parts of his Eden the summer I met him. I fell in love with him in this orchard.
As Ross Gay signed my book, he invited me to call him if I was ever in Bloomington for a personal tour of the orchard. He signed my book, “There is an orchard in Bloomington. You will love it.”
I had the delight of taking Ross Gay’s Advanced Poetry Workshop at Denver’s Lighthouse Writer’s LitFest. We folded and tore up paper and wrote on it. We wrote a sequence using the form he invented as he dispensed with the traditional methods well-known at most writing workshops. He wanted to sharpen our awareness of the world.
Ross Gay shared more than how to write a poem or how to make a poem pop off the page. For me, his best lesson was how to be a poet in the world. To be unabashedly open and share with everyone that crosses my path that poetry matters to me as person. I write poems, try to publish poems, and read poems constantly.
People will be curious when they ask about who you are and your response is, “I am a poet”. And they will want to know more about being a poet , and you will become an ambassador of poetry sharing the same lineage as Ross Gay.
Kathleen Willard, on the right, talks about poetry and letterpress broadsides at the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art.
Vermont Studio Center’s Six Feet Apart Interview
with Ross Gay & Artist Ari Tia
Vermont Studio Center at Johnson, Vermont.
Artist Tia Ari & Ross Gay attended Vermont Studio Center at the same time, became friends and Ari Tia’s painting is the cover of Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude. Join them as they have virtual reunion.
View the interview here and fInd Ross Gay’s website here.
Have I Told You Yet About the Courts I Love?
by Ross Gay
Read Ross’s essay about playing basketball here.
Books, Chapbooks, and Vinyl by Ross Gay
View Ross Gay’s list of books.
