American Life in Poetry: ode to the flute

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Kwame Dawes. Courtesy photo.

In this tiny conun­drum of a poem, Ross Gay, a poet who defi­ant­ly affirms the pos­si­bil­i­ties of hope and grat­i­tude, reminds us that the capac­i­ty to make a sound, to speak, to sing, is ful­ly con­nect­ed to the capac­i­ty to breathe, to live.

Gay​’s recent book of essays, “The Book of Delights,” is its own cat­a­logue of such hope.

ode to the flute
By Ross Gay
A man sings
by opening his
mouth a man
sings by opening
his lungs by
turning himself into air
a flute can
be made of a man
nothing is explained
a flute lays
on its side
and prays a wind
might enter it


American Life in Poetry does not accept unsolicited submissions. It is made possible by The Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright ©2015 by Ross Gay, “ode to the flute” from Catalogue of Unabashed Gratitude (University of Pittsburgh Press 2015.) Poem reprinted by permission of the author and the publisher. Introduction copyright © 2021 by The Poetry Foundation.