Ross Gay: Poem Analysis

A fellow native of Ohio, Ross Gay is an incredibly accomplished and unexpectedly cosmopolitan poet. A testament to his diverse past, Gay has experience in not only what we may expect, such as in teaching poetry and the arts at Lafayette College and Montclair State University, but also in what we do not expect (Poetry Foundation). Drawn to a different type of writing, Gay founded his own online sports magazine, “Some Call It Ballin,’” and continues to serve as the Founding Publisher and as a Senior Contributing Editor. In a completely different domain—in humanitarian non-profit work—Gay was one of the founding board members of the Bloomington Community Orchard, a free-food-for-all initiative in Indiana where Gay now teaches (Fielder).
Central to his career, however, has been his experience in and accolades for poetry. For his Bachelor’s degree (B.A.), Gay matriculated at Lafayette College—a small, private liberal arts school based in Easton, Pennsylvania, a mere 51.6 miles from Levittown, Pennsylvania where Gay grew up. Pursuing a
This harsh shift from a preconceived impression to a reality at which Gay forces the reader to look is found in some of Gay’s other poems as well, such as “The Heaven,” where the narrator describes Heaven as not shaping up to be everything one may expect. Specific to this poem, however, is the fear of the narrator: an African-American man who is taunted by the prospect of violence. While any driver stopped by a police officer would feel a normal amount of tension akin to that of possibly receiving a speeding ticket or other minor citation, Gay piles onto this existing nervousness by introducing the idea of violence, specifically the anticipation for possibly death-inducing violence, with lines like “his hand massaging the gun butt…” (12) (Gay