22 Mar Serious Noticing: A Guide to Filling the In Gratitude Boxes
Have you seen any of the In Gratitude boxes around Buffalo? Perhaps you’ve stood before one, pencil in hand, and suddenly felt stuck. What counts as “gratitude?” What do I write on this little gratitude card? Does it have to be profound? Does it have to be poetic?
Photo credit Pat Cray
Inspired by our recent community discussion of Ross Gay’s Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude, we wanted to share an insight: The best gratitude isn’t a grand sentiment—it’s a very specific observation.
It’s the act of looking at something so closely that it begins to glow. It’s an act of attention. Here are a few ways to help you contribute your observations to our collective catalog of gratitude — a Just Buffalo publication forthcoming in June 2026.
1. Dig for the “Useless” Details
Photo credit Pat Cray
Skip the big stuff for a moment (family, health, home) and look for the small, “useless” things that made your day 2% better.
Example:
“Coffee can taste like grapefruit
or caramel, like tobacco, strawberry,
cinnamon, the oils being pushed
out of the grounds and floating to the top of a French Press…”
from Michael Dickman’s poem “Coffee”
2. Find Beauty in the Gritty
photo credit Pat Cray
Buffalo isn’t always a postcard, and that’s why we love it. Some of the most “unabashed” gratitudes are found in the middle of the messy or busy.
Example:
“thank you the cockeyed court
on which in a half-court 3 vs. 3 we oldheads
made of some runny-nosed kids
a shambles, and the 61-year-old
after flipping a reverse lay-up off a back door cut
from my no-look pass to seal the game
ripped off his shirt and threw punches at the gods
and hollered at the kids to admire the pacemaker’s scar
grinning across his chest;”
from Ross Gay’s poem “Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude”
3. Witness the wild
photo credit Pat Cray
Nature isn’t just in the parks; it’s in the cracked of the sidewalks, the potholes that ruin our cars. Look, the earth is speaking to us here in Buffalo.
Example:
“look at the old house in the dawn rain
all the flowers are forms of water
the sun reminds them through a white cloud
touches the patchwork spread on the hill
the washed colors of the afterlife
that lived there long before you were born
see how they wake without a question
even though the whole world is burning”
from W.S. Merwin’s poem “Rain Light”
4. Use Your Senses
photo credit Pat Cray
If you’re stuck, go through your five senses. What is the city telling you right now?
Examples:
Sight: “I’ve never actually even seen the sky.
I’ve only ever seen effluents, seen wattage.”
from Natalie Shapero’s poem “The Sky”
Sound:
“When it’s snowing, the outdoors seem like a room.
Today I traded hellos with my neighbor.
Our voices hung close in the new acoustics.
A room with the walls blasted to shreds and falling.”
from David Berman’s poem “Snow”
Smell/Sound:
“Smell the air. That is the smell of the white pine,
most intense when the wind blows through it
and the sound it makes equally strange,
like the sound of the wind in a movie—”
from Louise Glück’s poem “The Past”
Ready to Submit?
Find an In Gratitude box near you at the Just Buffalo Literary Center, one of our city’s many independent bookstores, and at pop-up events throughout the season.
We can’t wait to read what you’ve noticed.
The In Gratitude project is generously supported by Cullen Foundation, Erie County, Foundation 214, The Golden Goldman Philanthropic Fund, The Margaret L. Wendt Foundation, and M&T Bank.