David Gate’s debut poetry collection, A Rebellion of Care, emerges as a vital voice in contemporary literature, offering readers a roadmap for navigating the complexities of modern existence while maintaining our humanity. This collection of poems and essays serves as both a battle cry against the dehumanizing forces of late-stage capitalism and a tender manifesto for cultivating authentic connection in an increasingly isolated world.
Gate, who has garnered a significant following on Instagram for his accessible yet profound poetry, brings his digital-age sensibilities to the printed page without losing the immediacy and emotional resonance that characterizes his online work. What emerges is a collection that feels simultaneously intimate and universal, speaking to the shared struggles of a generation caught between systemic dysfunction and an irrepressible desire for meaning.
The Architecture of Rebellion
The book’s ten-chapter structure mirrors the journey from personal awakening to collective action. Gate begins with “A Rebellion of Care,” establishing his central thesis that caring for ourselves and others represents a radical act in a society built on exploitation and individualism. The opening manifesto poem declares, “Make art & music / because music & art / are love letters to the living / addressed to us all,” immediately positioning creativity as an act of resistance against a culture that commodifies everything, including human connection.
Throughout the collection, Gate demonstrates remarkable range in both form and subject matter. His poetry moves fluidly between traditional verse structures and prose poems, from Instagram-ready micro-poems to longer, more contemplative pieces. This stylistic diversity reflects the book’s central theme: that authenticity requires embracing our full complexity rather than reducing ourselves to marketable personas.
The section “Human Becoming” explores bodily acceptance and the rejection of perfectionist culture with particular poignancy. In “Body Language,” Gate writes, “Whenever we divide our bodies / into what we like about them / and what we don’t / we mutilate ourselves,” offering a counternarrative to the self-improvement industrial complex that profits from our insecurities.
Friendship as Revolutionary Practice
Perhaps the most compelling section of the collection is “Friendship Will Save Us,” where Gate makes a persuasive case for platonic love as a transformative force. His assertion that “friendship is uniquely powerful because it is born from choice, not blood” reframes how we think about community building in an era of fractured social institutions.
Gate’s treatment of friendship transcends mere sentimentality, positioning it as a political act. When he writes about creating “a space for them / where all truths are tender,” he’s describing not just personal intimacy but a model for how society might function if care rather than competition were our organizing principle. This section resonates particularly strongly in our post-pandemic world, where many readers are reassessing the importance of genuine human connection.
Wrestling with Faith and Institutional Failure
The collection’s spiritual dimensions, explored primarily in “Haunted & Exhausted,” reveal Gate’s complex relationship with organized religion. Having grown up in various religious contexts, he brings both insider knowledge and prophetic critique to his examination of faith communities. His poem “White Jesus Must Die” exemplifies this tension, calling for the destruction of colonial Christianity while maintaining space for authentic spiritual experience.
Gate’s spiritual poetry succeeds because it refuses easy answers or comfortable platitudes. Instead, he presents faith as an ongoing struggle with doubt, institutional failure, and the gap between religious ideals and lived reality. This honest wrestling makes his moments of transcendence feel earned rather than manufactured.
The Personal as Political
Where Gate’s work truly shines is in his ability to connect individual experience to larger systemic issues. The section “The Tree Remembers What the Axe Forgets” demonstrates this skill most effectively, using the African proverb as a lens for examining how capitalism shapes our daily lives. His observation that “we cannot keep performing wellness in a hellscape” cuts through the superficiality of self-care culture to expose its inadequacy in addressing structural problems.
The poem “Give Us Back Our Lives” serves as the collection’s culmination, offering both a scathing indictment of contemporary life and a vision for something better. Gate’s catalog of modern alienation—”we unsubscribe from email lists / like it’s our job / (it isn’t)”—builds to a powerful call for reclaiming our humanity: “there is no virtue in / the denial of necessity / & having what we need / should not be a fantasy.”
Strengths and Minor Limitations
Gate’s greatest strength lies in his ability to make the political personal without sacrificing either dimension. His poems work as individual pieces while contributing to a larger argument about how we might live differently. The accessibility of his language never comes at the expense of depth or nuance, making complex ideas available to readers who might be intimidated by more academic poetry.
The collection’s digital-age sensibilities serve it well, with poems that feel designed for sharing while remaining substantial enough for sustained contemplation. Gate’s experience as an Instagram poet has clearly taught him the value of memorable, quotable lines, but he avoids the trap of sacrificing complexity for virality.
Some readers may find certain sections less cohesive than others, particularly “I Pour Out the Contents of My Notes App in an Attempt to Create Connection,” which, while conceptually interesting, occasionally feels scattered. Additionally, Gate’s righteous anger, while justified and necessary, sometimes overwhelms the more subtle emotional registers he’s capable of achieving.
A Voice for Our Times
A Rebellion of Care distinguishes itself from other contemporary poetry collections through its synthesis of personal vulnerability and political urgency. While poets like Rupi Kaur have popularized accessible verse, Gate brings greater depth and systemic analysis to his work. His approach shares DNA with poets like Adrienne Rich and Audre Lorde, who understood poetry as a tool for social transformation.
Gate’s background living in London, Belfast, Florida, and North Carolina gives his work a geographic breadth that enriches his perspective on American culture. His experience of Hurricane Helene in Asheville, mentioned in the introduction, provides concrete grounding for his arguments about mutual aid and community resilience.
Final Verdict
A Rebellion of Care succeeds as both poetry and manifesto, offering readers permission to embrace their full humanity while working toward collective liberation. Gate has created a collection that speaks to our moment’s particular anxieties while pointing toward timeless truths about love, community, and resistance.
The book’s power lies not in providing easy answers but in reframing the questions we ask about how to live meaningful lives in difficult times. Gate reminds us that saying something true in a world awash with lies is indeed the first act of rebellion, and his collection provides both the language and the courage for that essential work.
For readers seeking poetry that engages with contemporary issues without sacrificing beauty or nuance, A Rebellion of Care offers a necessary and hopeful voice. It’s a collection that demands to be shared, discussed, and ultimately lived.
Recommended Reading
For readers drawn to Gate’s blend of personal and political poetry, consider these similar works:
- “The Hill We Climb” by Amanda Gorman – Contemporary poetry addressing social justice
- “Citizen” by Claudia Rankine – Experimental poetry examining racism and identity
- “When the World as We Knew It Ended” by Joy Harjo – Indigenous perspectives on resistance and resilience
- “The Carrying” by Ada Limón – Modern poetry exploring connection and vulnerability
- “Homie” by Danez Smith – Poetry celebrating friendship and community
A Rebellion of Care stands as a remarkable debut that establishes David Gate as an essential voice for readers hungry for poetry that both comforts and challenges, offering hope without ignoring the very real struggles of our time.