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4.41 AVERAGE
4.41 AVERAGE
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
sad
slow-paced
emotional
hopeful
reflective
fast-paced
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
I still love Andrea's work a lot and their style of poetry and this was really beautiful and touching too, this just didn't make me feel as much as You Better Be Lightning did and I think it might be because a lot of the focus was on romantic relationships and that's not personally relatable to me at all
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
slow-paced
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
such an amazing read! especially the poems about addiction and gender.
*I received an ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thanks for the free poetry collection!*
I really enjoyed "Lord of the Butterflies" by Andrea Gibson, who is an American activist and poet. Their poetry (as far as I can tell from this poetry collection) focusses on gender identity, LGBTQ and political issues such as gun violence, war and the possibility of social reforms. Some poems were hard to read and made me sad. Nevertheless, I already recommended the book to a colleague at my department at University to use for his classes focussing on North America. He heard just one poem, but will now buy the collection it and use it in class.
Although I didn't enjoy all the poems, most of them were excellent in their simplicity. Here are just a few quotes of poems that moved me the most. I will check out more of Gibson's poetry.
"Your name is not a song you will sing under your breath.
Your pronouns haven't even been invented yet."
"Patti Smith hanging like a Christ
above the checkered tile."
"in the dream
america elected a president
who told the truth"
"White Feminism (noun):
1. A racism that claims
it is at least better
than no feminism at all,
like at least Hitler
was a vegetarian,
like we could actually
get comfortable
being the uneaten animal
in the lap of a man
making lampshades
out of human skin."
"Of the twenty children murdered at Sandy Hook,
not one of them needed an ambulance.
That's how dead they were.
That's how well the Second Amendment works."
"I imagine because Syria is 6,677 miles away
but would still be called our neighbor
if her children were as white a our eyes.
I know the white of the eye
is the part that does not see."
5 Stars because some poems were utterly beautiful.
I really enjoyed "Lord of the Butterflies" by Andrea Gibson, who is an American activist and poet. Their poetry (as far as I can tell from this poetry collection) focusses on gender identity, LGBTQ and political issues such as gun violence, war and the possibility of social reforms. Some poems were hard to read and made me sad. Nevertheless, I already recommended the book to a colleague at my department at University to use for his classes focussing on North America. He heard just one poem, but will now buy the collection it and use it in class.
Although I didn't enjoy all the poems, most of them were excellent in their simplicity. Here are just a few quotes of poems that moved me the most. I will check out more of Gibson's poetry.
"Your name is not a song you will sing under your breath.
Your pronouns haven't even been invented yet."
"Patti Smith hanging like a Christ
above the checkered tile."
"in the dream
america elected a president
who told the truth"
"White Feminism (noun):
1. A racism that claims
it is at least better
than no feminism at all,
like at least Hitler
was a vegetarian,
like we could actually
get comfortable
being the uneaten animal
in the lap of a man
making lampshades
out of human skin."
"Of the twenty children murdered at Sandy Hook,
not one of them needed an ambulance.
That's how dead they were.
That's how well the Second Amendment works."
"I imagine because Syria is 6,677 miles away
but would still be called our neighbor
if her children were as white a our eyes.
I know the white of the eye
is the part that does not see."
5 Stars because some poems were utterly beautiful.
3/5
"Thirty times last month I thought, I can’t do this another day. Thirty times last month I did it another day."
What an accurate description of every day of 2020.
"The lie
that this is weakness
when I am certain it is the mightiest proof
of my strength, how hard it is to live
knowing there’s a promised jaw
outside my front door
and I still step toward that horror.
Still I say, Here I am, world!"
These poems made me feel less alone
"Thirty times last month I thought, I can’t do this another day. Thirty times last month I did it another day."
What an accurate description of every day of 2020.
"The lie
that this is weakness
when I am certain it is the mightiest proof
of my strength, how hard it is to live
knowing there’s a promised jaw
outside my front door
and I still step toward that horror.
Still I say, Here I am, world!"
These poems made me feel less alone
