A Small Needful Fact (Poem)

What Is It?

“A Small Needful Fact” is a poem Ross Gay wrote in the wake of Eric Gardner’s murder. Recently, in 2020, we found the poem widely reposted on social media after the murder of George Floyd, as people sought solace and perspective. Gay is also a gardener and a founding board member of Bloomington Community Orchard, a non-profit, free-fruit-for-all food justice and joy project. Full text as follows:

A Small Needful Fact

Is that Eric Garner worked
for some time for the Parks and Rec.
Horticultural Department, which means,
perhaps, that with his very large hands,
perhaps, in all likelihood,
he put gently into the earth
some plants which, most likely,
some of them, in all likelihood,
continue to grow, continue
to do what such plants do, like house
and feed small and necessary creatures,
like being pleasant to touch and smell,
like converting sunlight
into food, like making it easier
for us to breathe.

What Does it Do?

Ross Gay’s poem is a tool for kin-making and finding common cause in multiple ways. It allows readers to feel and process a horrific event together away from the spectacle of news. It also expresses ecological thinking in the way that it links the actions of a human individual with the actions of plants and “necessary creatures.” The poem is both sad and uplifting. (Note: Toolshed does not argue that all poems or artworks will have a clearly identifiable or predictable use such as this. It depends on the mode of address of the poem or artwork. Even a useful poem will have a magic component– i.e. a component that elicits surprise and cannot be reduced to its use).

How Can It Be Accessed?

We print this poem in its entirety courtesy of Split This Rock’s The Quarry: A Social Justice Poetry Database and of Gay’s willingness and ability to be included in this database. This database is an amazing tool in and of itself.