Today I discovered that Ross Gay and Bon Iver performed the long poem "Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude," and you can listen to it on youtube or spotify or tidal or, probably, other platforms of your choice.
I was baking brownies, just brownies from the box, but I put raisins in them--I like raisins, so this is a good thing--and I swirled cinnamon on the top. In the time it took to mix the batter, put the pan in the oven, and wash the bowl, I listened to this poem, and by the time I had the water running to clean the bowl I was full on crying. Then I sat down to write this post, and listened to it again, and cried again.
You can read the full poem here, but I think there's something great about hearing a poet perform his own work. It's really lovely.
"thank you, too, this knuckleheaded heart, this pelican heart, this gap-toothed heart flinging open its gaudy maw to the sky, oh clumsy, oh bumblefucked, oh giddy, oh dumbstruck, oh rickshaw, oh goat twisting its head at me from my peach tree’s highest branch, balanced impossibly gobbling the last fruit, its tongue working like an engine, a lone sweet drop tumbling by some miracle into my mouth like the smell of someone I’ve loved; heart like an elephant screaming at the bones of its dead; heart like the lady on the bus dressed head to toe in gold, the sun shivering her shiny boots, singing Erykah Badu to herself leaning her head against the window"