A moving manifesto in poems and essays, inviting readers to embrace their humanity and live fully alive in our age of social change, hyper-capitalism, and pervasive loneliness
yes, everyone is struggling right now
so please be gracious
be kind & patient, but subvert
every institution that relies on our suffering
Something isn’t right. Every generation thinks that, but we have more cause than most. The way our society has been constructed is just not good for our bodies, our minds, or our hearts. What possible chance do our souls have?
In his debut collection, popular Instagram poet David Gate inspires us to rally for what makes life worth living: creating art as a form of care, living beyond consumer impulse, loving our neighbors (even the odd ones), and more. With his signature snark, humor, and billowing hope, Gate invites readers to ponder the complexities of self, community, love, and resilience.
Rejecting the notion that despair and positivity are our only available responses, Gate urges readers to foster deep friendships that challenge social orders and embrace questions of meaning and purpose. For, in his words, “Saying something true in a world awash with lies is the first act of rebellion.”
David Gate takes inspiration from all corners of 21st-century life lived under the extractive systems of late-stage capitalism in the poems and essays of A Rebellion of Care, a moving and necessary collection for any reader feeling the heaviness of current events. Gate is an immigrant and Appalachian homesteader, and questions of belonging sit alongside his observations of the natural world, as in "The Good We Can Imagine," which compares planting a kale seed to "throwing a pebble/ at a panzer tank." Pop-culture references abound, some specific ("Less panic, more disco!/ Less cold, more play/... However/ More joy, less division") and some general (a poem titled "Twerk of Art"). He writes about writing and creativity, faith in the face of weaponized religion, gender roles, love, community, and what it takes to share such small joys when "very little in our world seems right these days."
Gate's commitment to joy is not steeped in toxic positivity or unwitting devotion to finding the good. "I cannot keep practicing wellness in a hellscape," he notes in the collection's introduction. Instead, he invites readers to embrace joy--as rebellion, in one another, in intentional community built "of absolute fucking weirdos," in action--that exists alongside the complexities, violence, and inequities of the world and refuses to give up or give in. "I believe that truth still hums with possibility," Gate writes. "And saying something true in a world awash with lies/ is the first act of rebellion." A Rebellion of Care promises to inspire and inflame, its words a soul-soothing offering of care found in the beauty and vision of community Gate conjures. --Kerry McHugh, freelance writer, Shelf Awareness, starred review
“Where policy and programming and posturing fall short, poetry delivers. Art is going to save us, and David Gate has given us the most gorgeous book of words that matter. I can’t even pick my favorite poem, but this line is a contender: ‘Though the system takes all it can from our tired bodies . . . it will never, not ever, ransack our hallelujahs.’ Come for the language, stay for the hope. What a gift. We need it right now.”—Jen Hatmaker, author and host of the For the Love Podcast
“This book invites you to be radicalized by tenderness . . . a soulful refuge for both the cynic and the softy.”—Lyndsay Rush, author of A Bit Much
“A Rebellion of Care is audacious, generous, and loaded with love. To read David’s poetry is to be cracked wide open for the sake of beauty, wonder, and, most critically, each other. I haven’t been this moved by a book in a long time.”—Kendra Adachi, author of The PLAN and The Lazy Genius Way
“Caution: this book contains absurd amounts of grace and beauty. Side effects may include tears, smiles, and a renewed belief in our shared humanity.”—Nora McInerny, bestselling author and host of the Terrible, Thanks for Asking podcast
“Good gracious, this book made me so glad to be alive in this beautiful tragedy of a world. A Rebellion of Care is a bracing pull-no-punches invitation to the disruption of joy, the tender work of healing, the demand of justice, and the stubborn ordinary holiness of being a person, despite all evidence to the contrary.”—Sarah Bessey, bestselling author of Field Notes for the Wilderness
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