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4.58 AVERAGE
4.58 AVERAGE
Warnings for suicide, depression, sexual violence
I would give this book eleventy billion stars if I could: one star for each goosebump Andrea Gibson gave me (see their first poem).
I know I will read this book many, many times.
If you're able to purchase both a paper copy and the audio version (with Andrea reading their poetry), I highly recommend you do!
I would give this book eleventy billion stars if I could: one star for each goosebump Andrea Gibson gave me (see their first poem).
I know I will read this book many, many times.
If you're able to purchase both a paper copy and the audio version (with Andrea reading their poetry), I highly recommend you do!
I don’t think poetry needs to be serious to be impactful, but some of the levity in Gibson’s collection detracts a bit from what this collection could be. Nevertheless, this flooded my heart in the ways all good poetry does.
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“I know most people try hard to do good and find out too late they should have tried softer. I've never in my whole life been levelheaded, but the older I get, I'm more level-hearted — and I think we make gods who look like us for a reason. I think, in spite of it all, we trust we can be believed in. When I don't believe in myself, I try to remember I have walked on water, like, seven-hundred times in Maine in the dead of winter.”
“because where I come from beauty is in the eye of anyone who sees what's missing but can't stop pointing to what's still there. If there's no definition for love yet— I think that's a good one.”
“But we learned how wrong we were, and weren't those the best days? The days we learned how wrong we were and so got to grow into our goodness, throwing the peach pits of our old selves into the garden to grow sweetness.”
“To make up for lost time, you need only to put down the grudge you are holding so you can pick up the phone and say, How many days did we need each other at the same time without knowing it?
Bitterness is the easiest way to leave this world having had only a near-life experience.”
“QUEER YOUTH ARE FIVE TIMES MORE LIKELY TO DIE BY SUICIDE means: You lived five times harder than you should have had to to still have a body when you graduated high school. means: Hate worked five times harder to make your spirit its wishbone. means: When your mother asked what was wrong, you were five times more likely to believe you'd lose her if you spoke the truth.”
“If you are going to be anything in the world tonight, you better be lightning. You better find something in you honest enough to strike them.”
“Why are the keys to our future in the hands of those who have the longest commutes from their heads to their hearts? Whose greed is the smog that keeps us from seeing our own nature and the sweetness we are here to protect? Do you know sometimes when gathering nectar, bees fall asleep in flowers? Do you know fish are so sensitive snowflakes sound like fireworks when they land on the water? Do you know sea otters hold hands when they sleep so they don't drift apart? Do you know whales will follow their injured friends to shore, often taking their own lives so as not to let a loved one be alone when he dies? None of that is poetry. It is just the earth being who she is in spite of us stamping barcodes on the sea. In spite of us acting like Edison invented daylight.”
“There was never not a bridge from your chest to mine. My heartbeat was always the sound of your feet walking toward me.”
———————————————————————————
“I know most people try hard to do good and find out too late they should have tried softer. I've never in my whole life been levelheaded, but the older I get, I'm more level-hearted — and I think we make gods who look like us for a reason. I think, in spite of it all, we trust we can be believed in. When I don't believe in myself, I try to remember I have walked on water, like, seven-hundred times in Maine in the dead of winter.”
“because where I come from beauty is in the eye of anyone who sees what's missing but can't stop pointing to what's still there. If there's no definition for love yet— I think that's a good one.”
“But we learned how wrong we were, and weren't those the best days? The days we learned how wrong we were and so got to grow into our goodness, throwing the peach pits of our old selves into the garden to grow sweetness.”
“To make up for lost time, you need only to put down the grudge you are holding so you can pick up the phone and say, How many days did we need each other at the same time without knowing it?
Bitterness is the easiest way to leave this world having had only a near-life experience.”
“QUEER YOUTH ARE FIVE TIMES MORE LIKELY TO DIE BY SUICIDE means: You lived five times harder than you should have had to to still have a body when you graduated high school. means: Hate worked five times harder to make your spirit its wishbone. means: When your mother asked what was wrong, you were five times more likely to believe you'd lose her if you spoke the truth.”
“If you are going to be anything in the world tonight, you better be lightning. You better find something in you honest enough to strike them.”
“Why are the keys to our future in the hands of those who have the longest commutes from their heads to their hearts? Whose greed is the smog that keeps us from seeing our own nature and the sweetness we are here to protect? Do you know sometimes when gathering nectar, bees fall asleep in flowers? Do you know fish are so sensitive snowflakes sound like fireworks when they land on the water? Do you know sea otters hold hands when they sleep so they don't drift apart? Do you know whales will follow their injured friends to shore, often taking their own lives so as not to let a loved one be alone when he dies? None of that is poetry. It is just the earth being who she is in spite of us stamping barcodes on the sea. In spite of us acting like Edison invented daylight.”
“There was never not a bridge from your chest to mine. My heartbeat was always the sound of your feet walking toward me.”
Gibson is clever, accurate, a joy-giver, and a comforter with this collection.
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
slow-paced
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
fast-paced
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-paced
So many highlights from this! These poems/essays can definitely cause self-reflection on the inner working of your life.
challenging
reflective
medium-paced
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
sad
fast-paced