Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude: Mini-Review

I love poetry. I love to read it and, occasionally, write it. But I find it extremely difficult to review. I find the Emily Dickinson quotes very apt: "If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold that no fire can ever warm me, I know that it is poetry." and "If I feel physically as if the top of head were taken off, I know that is poetry." For me reading poetry is a very visceral experience--triggering memories and emotions and, in today's parlance, "giving me all the feels." Ross Gay's Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude gives me all the feels: joy and loss and nostalgia and hope--and everything else in between. His poems have a genuineness, an earthiness, an honesty that you cannot ignore. His poems about the fruit of the earth make you want to go out and plant a garden. His poems about lost friends make you want to rush out and find yours and give them a hug before they too are gone. 

Ross's poems are very evocative of Ross the man. I can't remember ever seeing him without a smile. A smile that bursts on your horizon like sunrise--full of joy and hope and gratitude. ★★★★★

[Finished on 1/11/18]

If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can ever warm me, I know that is poetry.
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/emily_dickinson_124391

If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can ever warm me, I know that is poetry.
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/emily_dickinson_124391