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just_one_more_paige's review against another edition
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")
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence, Homophobia, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Violence
Moderate: Child death, Death, Mass/school shootings, and Suicide attempt
Minor: Addiction and War
solliereads's review against another edition
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
sad
fast-paced
5.0
Gibson's poetry is beautiful, provocative, and evoking of so many emotions that I didn't even realize that I had, or pay enough attention to. Reading their work felt like having a long, cathartic cry and then picking myself back up again from the ground to face the sun. Andrea writes with brutal honest the horrors of America - they effortlessly portray issues like racism, feminism that fights for equality but not equality for all women, school shootings, grief, and homophobia through a haunting lens that will leave you thinking for a long time. I've written down some of my favourite passages below, but if I included them all, I would be here forever.
Your life at the prom where you'll run home in a snowstorm, chucking your last pair of heels in a snowbank, realising you are the only boy you ever wanted to tear your dress off for .
Like we could actually get comfortable being the uneaten animal in the lap of the man making lampshades out of human skin.
I pose you beside our bloodline, our grandfather throwing his liver through the kitchen window, our grandmother on her knees sweeping up the glass. I zoom in to the pieces she didn't find. I find them in the sole of your shoes on your worst day of junior high.
Even life is like funeral practice: half of us already dead to our families before we die.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Homophobia, Mass/school shootings, and Lesbophobia
Minor: Drug abuse, Racism, Grief, and Religious bigotry
katharina90's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
I have so much love for Andrea Gibson and there are many poems and lines in this collection that I keep coming back to. "America, Reloading" in particular is incredibly powerful.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child death, Gun violence, Homophobia, Mass/school shootings, Religious bigotry, and Suicide attempt
Minor: Addiction, Confinement, and Transphobia
caelinsullivan's review against another edition
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
fast-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence
Moderate: Addiction, Self harm, Religious bigotry, and Suicide attempt
Minor: Homophobia and Transphobia
hickorynut's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
fast-paced
3.75
Incredibly written and powerful. Lots of TWs but very worth reading for those who can.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Genocide, Gun violence, Antisemitism, Mass/school shootings, Murder, and War
Moderate: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Homophobia, Racism, Self harm, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and War
courtneyfalling's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
tense
fast-paced
3.0
These poems definitely feel written for performance and immediate impact, but sometimes at the expense of how complicated or careful their messages can be. "Fight for Love," for example, shows a pretty toxic relationship, and honestly, if someone wrote that for me, it would be a wake-up call to leave that relationship.
A lot of these poems were long and varied, so I didn't really have favorite poems, more favorite or memorable lines:
A lot of these poems were long and varied, so I didn't really have favorite poems, more favorite or memorable lines:
- "the unbearable loneliness / of sanity"
- "fought god / for the rights / to the apocalypse"
- The Day You Died Because You Wanted To
- "A few years ago a friend asked if you'd ever had a childhood. You said, No—but that wasn't right. What you haven't had is an adulthood."
- "What do I think we should be doing / about Syria? Imagining until we grieve. / Grieving until we act // like we know what kind of laughter / is the sound of the beginning / of the end of the world."
Content Warnings
Moderate: Gun violence, Homophobia, Suicide, and Transphobia
lavendl's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
slow-paced
3.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Suicidal thoughts, and Mass/school shootings
Moderate: Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt
cameron778's review against another edition
emotional
inspiring
sad
medium-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Gun violence, Homophobia, Suicidal thoughts, Mass/school shootings, and Suicide attempt
Minor: Addiction
honeyandthyme's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.5
From small, intimate moments between lovers to overarching, political poems, this collection does an excellent job of encompassing the American queer experience. The pacing from work to work is lovely - a good mix of shorter/ longer poems and heavy/lighthearted topics.
My greatest mistake was reading “Orlando” in public. Of all the poems, this one most thoroughly sucker punched me in the gut. It is incredibly difficult to read, and perfectly portrays the terror inherent in the LGBTQ+ community after the Pulse Nightclub. There are no words to fully express how the author’s amazing writing explores and contextualizes that day. It’s a poem that never should have needed to be written, but because it was, I’m glad Gibson was its author.
Not all poems were as raw as that one, but all were equally as breathtakingly written.
My greatest mistake was reading “Orlando” in public. Of all the poems, this one most thoroughly sucker punched me in the gut. It is incredibly difficult to read, and perfectly portrays the terror inherent in the LGBTQ+ community after the Pulse Nightclub. There are no words to fully express how the author’s amazing writing explores and contextualizes that day. It’s a poem that never should have needed to be written, but because it was, I’m glad Gibson was its author.
Not all poems were as raw as that one, but all were equally as breathtakingly written.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Homophobia, Suicidal thoughts, and Mass/school shootings
Minor: Suicide
gay's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Gun violence and Homophobia