What do you think of Andrea Gibson's Poems?
You can go to YouTube to see tons of her videos; I recommend "Yellow Bird" and "Swing Set." Then, I'd like to hear what you notice about her style, what you like and don't like about her writing, delivery... just as a way to get us started before January 5th!
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"bury me in a blue blanket so God won't know I'm a girl
cut off my curls, I want peace when I'm dead"
Blue Blanket is so intense-- especially in spoken word... and I definitely almost cried at the end 
do you know they've found land mines
in broken women's souls
black holes in the parts of their hearts
that once sang symphonies of creation
bright as the light on infinity's halo
no, the ceiling fan still feels like his breath
I think I just need a couple more days of rest
she'd ask her, what gods do you believe in?
I'll build you a temple of mirrors so you can see them
pick the brightest star you've ever wished on
I'll show you the light in you that made that wish come true
I also really like the occasional rhymes in these verses...
I really like yellowbird. The ending where she walks off the stage and the music continues was one of my favorite parts. It left me with this feeling of how valuable art really is and the things she talks about in her poem about how art is necessity. I love when she says something about the girl writing the best starry night on her test, and Picasso painting with his tongue on the floor of his cell
i think the emotion that she shows in every single performance poem i've seen so far is incredible! i really liked the quote in yellowbird
"we have to create...
it is the only chance
the bars are gonna break
our hands full of color
reaching toward the sky"
it applied nicely to what we've been talking about and, in my opinion, kinda gave purpose to the idea in the Forche poem that, 'i must'. We HAVE to create because thats how we can make a difference...especially pertinant to the poetry of witness.
And my sappy comment for the day is that you ahould watch photograph...its another really good one!
also...(from blue blanket)
"she's heard stories
of Vietnam vets
who can still feel the tingling of
their amputated limbs
she's wondering how
many women are
walking around this world
feeling the tingling of their
amputated wings."
Gibson is one of my writing idols without a doubt. Her performance style is a phenomenon in the writing and literature world. She's the kind of person I would love to meet and ask, "Who are you?" because she would come up with some kickin response unlike the rest of the world, "I'm (fill in the blank)".
My butterflies have become suicide bombers crashing to the walls of my gut.
Yes, I am searching your eyes for Jeffrey Dahmer,
searching your face for blood red crime.
It’s what white people do.
We look for weapons of mass destruction in the Garden of Eden,
or we cuff you to the trunk of the same tree your ancestors were hung from.
The land of the free has replaced its plantations with penitentiaries…
-Andrea Gibson
Frankie
I went to her website.
"For Eli" made me cry.
"the hearse is parked in the halls of the high school/ recruiting black, brown and poor/ while anti-war activists/ outside walter reed army hospital scream/ 100,000 slain/ as an amputee on the third floor/ breathes forget-me-nots onto the window pain."
Do you remember the night I told you
I've never seen anything more perfect than
than snow falling in the glow of a street light
electricity bowing to nature
mind bowing to heartbeat.
"Photograph" has been one of my favorites so far and this part was one of the best parts within the performance for me. She's such a talented writer and passionate performer!
this is gonna hurt bowing to I love you...
God yes. But for me, this is the part that does it in Photograph--I think it's because I really relate, but it's also that the metaphor is incredible.
I wish I was a photograph
tucked into the corners of your wallet
I wish I was a photograph
you carried like a future in your pocket
I wish I was that face you show to strangers
when they ask you where you come from
I wish I was that someone that you come from
every time you get there
and when you get there
I wish I was that someone who got phone calls
and postcards saying
wish you were here
I love how the language loops on itself at the end. The image of being the photograph someone tucks in their pocket conveys so much warmth and intimacy.
I just rewatched/listened to "Blue Blanket" and, as a lot of people probably feel, it gets more and more powerful every time.
And on a lighter note I also rewatched "Swing Set" and I love how humorous she is at some spots and really moving at others.
"And the class, when we discuss the Milky Way galaxy, the orbit of the Sun around the Earth… or whatever. Jupiter, Saturn, Mars, and kids, do you know that some of the stars we see when we look up in the sky are so far away, they’ve already burned out? What do you think of that? Timmy? “Umm… my mom says that even though you got hairs that grow from your legs, and the hairs on your head grow short and poky, and that you smell really bad, like my dad, that you’re a girl.” “Thank you, Timmy.”
And then she jumps to something more serious (kind of) about how the parents are the one who are so much more judgemental than the kids:
“Listen, lady, the only rude thing I see is your paranoid parental hand pushing aside the best education on self that little girl’s ever gonna get, living with your Maybelline lipstick after hips and pedi kiwi, vanilla-smelling beauty; so why don’t you take your pinks and blues, your boy-girl rules and shove them in that car with your f***ing issue of Cosmo, because tomorrow, I start my day with twenty-eight minds who know a hell of a lot more than you. And if I show up in a pink frilly dress, those kids won’t love me any more, or less.”
I LOVE her. (sorry it wouldn't let me post "inappropriate language"
This post was edited on: 2010-01-10 at 08:51 PM by: torreys93
Sarah Fukami
Jan 5, 2010 at 11:26 PM