Emotion
Throughout his poems, Gay often deals with the intensity of feelings. Using a highly image rich language, he describes love, sadness, hate, joy in extremely vivid tones. The feeling of depression is exemplified in the beginning of "Opera Singer", joy is part of "Catalogue of Unabashed Gratitude. A mixture of hate and dejection can be found in "Love, I'm done with you". Pure love, finally, is found in "Poem to my child, if ever you shall be". These examples, among many, showcase the vivid language and the depth of emotion within the poetry of Ross Gay.
Family
While not a central theme of whole poetic collections, family is a recurring topic. It can be found in the shape of a wedding of friends in "Wedding Poem", a yearning for what might be in "Poem to my child, if ever you shall be" or a thankful note towards a father in "Catalogu of Unabashed Gratitude". The concept of family is always depicted positively, shedding some light on the personal realities of the author.
Friendship
Throughout the poetry of Gay, friendship can be seen as one of the main themes. It is the obvious central topic of "Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude", where the narrator lists acquaintances and strangers alike, calling them friends. It can be found in a more subtle way in poems like "Opera Singer", where a strangers song warms the heart of the protagonist. Similarily to family, friendship is depicted positively.
The reality of the modern world
While most of Gay's poetry has a joyful and positive attitude, some darker and more realistic tendons can be found in some of his shorter poems. Being an African American poet, the realities of racism and social injustice are central themes of his life and can be found in the poetry. One prime example is the poem with the long title "Within Two Weeks the African American Poet Ross Gay is Mistaken for Both the African American Poet Terrance Hayes and the African American Poet Kyle Dargan, Not One of Whom Looks Anything Like the Others", which talks about the rage one feels when being stereotyped. Another, less extreme example is the plea towards his imaginary child to fight for the world in "Poem to my child, if ever you shall be".
