A review by erinkleslie
You Better Be Lightning by Andrea Gibson

5.0

This was my first Andrea Gibson (how did I not know about them?!) and I am a BIG fan. They are going right up there with Mary Oliver for me, in poets I adore that I can (and will) return to again and again.

Deep, resonant words that I haven't fully digested yet. Love!

"I know most people try hard
to do good and find out too late
they should have tried softer."
(p. 5)

"Bitterness is the easiest way
to leave this world having had only
a near-life experience."
(p. 19)

"...a difficult life is not less
worth living than a gentle one. Joy is just easier
to carry than sorrow..."
(p.31)

"I don't want to forget
anything about this. Especially not how it
feels to worry about everyone I love at the
same time--so much of the world had been
doing that already."
(p. 63)

Excerpts from one of my favorites, The Test of Time:
"I still believe what the world has taught me
to believe--that life will not take my breath away...

...love will still throw me over her shoulder and carry me up
every story I've ever told myself so I can see what's true,

and what's true is I can't always tell the difference
between my gifts and my tragedies...

...now my words

are so good at coming to my rescue,
fire trucks pull over to let my voice through...

...just like everyone else I have no clue
what tomorrow will sing, or scream, what I will feel

or what I won't...

...but there is a test we can all take to find out the future.
It's called the test of time. And what you do is live

until you die. And you refuse to let the hands of your clock
curl into fists to fight the lessons off. Even if the lessons

are brutally hard."
(p. 75-77)