A Rebellion of Care: Poems and Essays

by David Gate

Overview

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.”

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780593602171
Publisher:	Harmony/Rodale/Convergent
Publication date:	07/15/2025
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.50(h) x 0.62(d)

About the Author

David Gate grew up in London before making his way to Belfast, Northern Ireland and Jacksonville, Florida. He now lives in the ancient Appalachian mountains of Asheville, North Carolina, where he writes, mills flour, and tends to a one-acre homestead with his partner and children.

Editorial Reviews

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, New York Times bestselling 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, USA Today bestselling 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, New York Times bestselling 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

From the Publisher