TO MAKE OF FALLING, FLIGHT APR Books
Be Holding
Ross Gay
University of Pittsburgh Press, 2020
To say Be Holding g is about Dr. J is like saying Harry Potter is a book about an orphan. For while it is the unabashed fawning of a fan over his basketball hero; more, Be Holding directs our awe. The book-length poem begins by describing Dr. J’s obstacle-dodging, gravity-defying hook shot, and quickly extends to the flight—both in body and in spirit—black folks have managed for centuries. Through replaying a YouTube clip frame by frame, the speaker makes visual jumps from Julius Erving’s 1980 NBA finals’ baseline scoop to other photos, weaving a net of daydream, memory, and familial history, and ultimately questioning what it means to watch and be watched. Even as it digresses, Be Holding demands readers hold their gaze steady and enact the particular attention it takes to behold but not hold down. To be beholden, but in flight.
The poem’s format—center-justified, short lines interspersed with photos—shapes the reading experience. Centered text focuses our attention and gives readers nowhere else to look, and tight couplets work as a unit of breath, propelling us down the page. When necessary, the lines isolate and thereby emphasize where we need to pause for things to sink in—especially hard things, or beautiful things, or beautifully hard things. Similarly, photos center a reader’s gaze: as images springboard the speaker into a mode of empathetic daydream, the visuals ground us.
