A review by just_one_more_paige
Lord of the Butterflies by Andrea Gibson

challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

5.0

 
I decided to pick up a poetry collection during April, in honor of National Poetry Month, and though it took me so long to get to it that this review is getting posted in May, I'm really glad this was the one I chose. It was a random selection from my library's Poetry Month display....I had never heard of it before, but the cover and title (that play on Lord of the Flies definitely had me curious), just caught my attention and, not having any frame of reference for poetry really (with my once/year attempt to read a collection), I went for it. 
 
In Lord of the Butterflies, Gibson addresses a number of salient "hot topics," covering more personal items like gender and sexuality and love and relationships, as well as more politically leaning ones, like gun violence and mental health and refugee crises and the general dangers of the extremity of conservatism in the US. While a few of the poems here were a bit lighter, dealing with finding love and the joy in small everyday moments of connection in relationships, the majority of this collection was intense to read. Gibson's language includes quality word play and rhythm, association and metaphor, but all of it in a much more transparent and accessible way than some of the previous collections I've read (looking at you, Citizen). All their meaning and themes are clear, and evoke incredible emotion (see listed below my list of favorite poems, with short snippets about why and their emotional impacts), blending art and activism in a "for everyone" kind of way. 
 
There was a blurb for this collection that I read that said something like: it's an “oscillating between activism and love.” And I don't think I could say anything more spot on, as a description for this experience. At times there was almost some whiplash in the hardcore back and forth between those two perspectives. But like, the good kind of whiplash...if that exists? I was very invested. Also, I can definitely see in these poems the background Gibson has in spoken word performance - these would lend themselves to that style of performance very well. Overall, this is a great collection for a "I'm not sure I 'get' poetry" type reader (so, me, haha).  
 
Favorite Poems: 
"Good Light" (especially part one) 
"Diagnosis" (though all the short poems packed a major punch) 
"Radio" (the word play and meaning and rhythm and the way it highlights the little moments in a life together is so touching) 
"Weather" (this feels like a high quality spoken word poem; I love it’s flow, and the tying together of memory moments and thematic element of cold/snow) 
"America, Reloading" (with its words twisted together in multiple meanings and metaphors mixed with unbridled truths; HARD to read, ooof) 
 
Quotes: 
"I suffer / from unrequited self love. / I love myself, but I don't / love myself / back." ("Diagnosis") 
“Understanding why we're bad at love / doesn't necessarily make us good at it.” (from "Bad at Love") 
“Some people fall out of love. / I jump /to feel the safety / of the parachute.” (from "Bad at Love") 
“...Imagining until we grieve. / Grieving until we act / like we know what kind of laughter / is the sound at the beginning / of the end of the world.” (from "Until We Act") 
“But no one heals what they refuse to look at.” (from "Daytime, Somewhere") 
“…that our veins are absolutely strings / tied to other people's kites, / that our lives are that connected.” (from "Living Proof") 
Expand filter menu Content Warnings