A collection with some thought-provoking and heart wrenching lines. A pleasant read.
A must read! Cannot wait to read more of Gibson's work.

All the Good in You

When all the good in you
starts arguing with all the bad in you
about who you really are,
never let the bad in you
make the better case.

*Thank you Netgalley and publisher for providing me an ARC in exchange for an honest review*

I finished this book some time last week and I honestly don’t remember what I thought of this book anymore. So let me browse my copy for a minute or two. … Okay, so, so, this book has got some powerful messages, pages that made my heart ache and a theme I don’t always read but is close to my heart. There are also many subjects in this collection and I think that’s why it didn’t feel repetitive for me.

Overall, I liked this book. There are important messages inside this book that are thought-provoking and timely. Though, I have to say that the writing style is not for me and I have my favorites, yes, but I didn’t connect with this collection as much as I hoped I would.

When she’s down I want to give her my best
pick-up lines. What’s your sign?
My sign has historically been STOP
but since meeting you I’ve changed it
to MERGE.

I had never heard of Andrea Gibson before reading this book of poetry. I definitely know her now. In fact, very intimately as a result of her vulnerability and frank openness.

The overall feeling while experiencing these poems was moroseness. My heart broke with each new page. Sure, there were sprinkles of positive reflection. But there was mostly a theme of sadness.

Sexual Identity, Sibling struggles, Tragedy, Religion, Anxiety, Depression, Politics, and Suicide are all tackled topics within the pages.

Gibson definitely has a way with words. Here are several of the many tidbits that resonated with me:

<strong>"...realizing you are the only boy you ever wanted to tear your dress off for."

"They told me the same thing
about Santa always watching and I didn't mind
because he was bringing presents."

---

"If you've never had a panic attack,
there's a good chance you've been an ass
to someone who has

JUST RELAX
and CALM DOWN
always seems like helpful things

to scream if oxygen
has never been over your head,
if your body has never become its own corset."

---

"I love myself, but I don't
love myself
back."

---

"...What if you are the love your life? I think, Oh my god, I hope

that's not true,
because I am absolutely
not my type."

---

"...never let the bad in you
make the better case."

--
</strong>
There were also things that made you think. Gibson feels we should be making more snowwomen than snowmen. Why don't we? And her thought on open heart valves was swoon worthy.

How do you rate poetry? Isn't it all subjective? While this was entirely depressing material, it did make me FEEL. And for that level of connection and the aforementioned vulnerability, there is no other option to than to give this a 5.

I received a copy through Netgalley from Button Poetry for an honest review.

I got an ARC of this book.

This book of poetry is pretty fantastic. There were a few poems that either went entirely over my head or I just didn't enjoy them, but overall there was an emotional punch here that I enjoyed. The topics ranged from break-ups to the Pulse nightclub shooting to the current presidency. 

There was a lot more about gender in this collection than the last one I read. I enjoyed the gender conversation. If I had read this when I was first coming to terms with being trans and what that really meant, it would have been even more important to me. There are references to Stone Butch Blues and Leslie Feinberg throughout the book that just made my heart soar. Feinberg helped me to come to terms with my own gender by being this incredible gender warrior and activist. I am not surprised to see someone else had similar feelings and it just made me feel more understood that I ever have before. There is that power in this collection.

The political poems were straight to the point, powerful, and didn't hold any punches. Gibson really went there saying that a vote for Trump was a vote for racism and violence. POINT NEEDED. It is so hard to watch what is happening and stay "civil" and "polite". Gibson showed, again, that we don't need to be polite or civil. We need to fight for good. Locking kids in cages: evil. Actively supporting racism: pretty nasty. Actively hurting poor people for your own profit: seems like a bad idea at the very least. So not saying he is evil, but not not saying that too. The comparisons to Hitler were pretty fantastic. There may be some good in Trump somewhere, but that in no way negates all the evil he has done and supported. So while I am still trying to find the good, so I can still see him as human, this book gave me the permission to let his actions speak for him instead of me hunting for a reason to rationalize what he has done. So Trump is greedy, racist, and misogynistic. Is he evil? Probably, like I am pretty sure he is. At the very least he is a terrible person. There may be some good lurking, but it is so far buried and tiny that it doesn't matter (like Hitler being a vegetarian isn't enough to redeem him). If he saves a kitten from a fire one day, it still won't redeem what he has done to so many people. I have to thank Gibson for that permission. 

There is just so much in this book that is heavy. Take your time reading. Take a minute between pieces to really prepare and settle. Reading straight through will not give the words justice.

I received a digital ARC of this book via NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

I love reading poetry and discovering new poets, But unfortunately, this was not for me, I couldn’t connect with the pomes or relate to any, and I only liked a couple of lines.

some of the poems were too long to the point where I forgot what the beginning was.

I loved the cover and the title but not so much the content.

I receieved this book complimentary through Netgalley (so thanks to you and to Button Poetry)!

Holy. Moly.
Do not read this book if you are wanting to just feel totally fine afterwards. Definitely don't finish it on your lunch break at your desk at work because you will cry, and your makeup will smear, and people will ask if you're okay and you just may get pathetic glances from your co-workers.

Now that that's out of the way. This book was phenomenal. I felt the cuts made by their poems through my bones. Also, I have never in my life related to someone as much as I related to their poem regarding panic attacks. Way too real and relatable, wow.

I would absolutely tell any of my friends (especially my queer brothers and sisters) to read this and then make a plan with me to go see Andrea do spoken word live, deal? Because I clearly didn't feel these cuts enough reading them myself, I need to feel them shatter my bone in real life too.

Andrea Gibson has been one of the most potent voices in poetry for the LGBTQ community at large. Although since this genre of poetry (spoken poetry) is best consumed if heard live (or watching a video of one of their readings), I suggest that in conjunction to reading this book that you also see them live, because they’re a force to be reckoned with. The poetry comes alive in ways that wouldn’t be able to on print, making you feel just how raw, visceral, and gut-wrenching this experience can truly be.

Many of the topics they explore are things that society is still dealing with such as gender identity, gun control, homophobia, and mental illness. I’m usually not a huge fan of contemporary poets as for someone who majored in Classics, I’ve got a penchant for the likes of Charles Baudelaire, Poe, John Keats, and William Blake. However, much like Sylvia Plath in her days, Andrea Gibson has the courage to shed her skin and allow us to see what’s inside and challenging us to do the same.

I recommend this book if you’re okay with having to nurse a cracked heart afterward because Gibson’s poems cut deep.

This stunning collection of poems by Andrea Gibson is as topical as today's newspaper. Touching on topics from mass shootings to Syria, from childhood awakenings of sexuality and Thanksgiving celebrations to gas chambers, trump and Hitler, these poems are often angry cries of injustice, and always powerful. I like political poems, agreeing with Shelley's statement that poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world. While love plays a role here, it is far from the focus of this work.

I had never heard of Andrea Gibson before reading this book, but now that I know her work, I will actively search for her books in the future.

Lord of The Butterflies
by Andrea Gibson
2018
IPBA/Button Poetry
5.0 / 5.0

Powerful and beautifully written, deep and invigorating, this is poetry and prose that reached into the depth of my soul, taking random, yet strong emotions and putting them into words. Giving them a voice.
Good poets make us feel like we belong, are understood and less alone.
Great poets can make us more aware of ourselves by sharing their own feelings. Can make us see beyond just ourselves, the interconnectivity of life.
Andrea Gibson is a good poet. She's an even better great poet. I love her!
The poems are all gay centered on topics that influence our world today....love, family, politics, friendship. The poems "Orlando" and "America Reloading" brought tears and were the most powerful, to me. "Dear Trump Voter" and "Until We Act" remind us how necessary it is for us to involved in the change we hope to see for our futures. "Your Life" and "America Wakes Up In The Middle Of The Night" were my two favorites. Stellar.....every poem.
Gibson has won a place on my bookshelf and has opened my heart and spirit to feelings I've let sit inside too long.
Amazing.
Highly recommended.
Thank you to #Netgalley and #LordOfTheButterflies for the
e-book advance copy for review.! Loved it!

https://en.wikipedia.org/w*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. iki/Andrea_Gibson

Excellent, gripping, and striking poetry that manages to be both incredibly subtle and also hits you like a freight train. I really enjoyed this book, and I would very highly recommend it to anyone who is looking for an especially good book of poetry, particularly if they enjoy themes of gender and sexuality. The collection stands really beautifully together, but each piece is also very strong on its own.

A thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I didn’t care for the politics. I wasn’t expecting there to be politics in this one. The poetry itself was good, I just didn’t care for the content. I don’t like to read about politics of any kind.

"DEPRESSION [VERB]
to put on
your best outfit
and feel
like you're dressing
a wound"

While it is the first book of Andrea that I'm reading, after all the poems hitting a place on my mind and heart in it's own way, I'm sure I'll need to look for her other books to keep feeling like this.

With poems varying from politics, to homophobia and from health. It was lot's of emotions coming to hit me where it should, keep me thinking, keep me feeling.

"DIAGNOSIS
I suffer
from unrequited love,
I love myself, but I don't
love myself
back"

Very skillfully written poetry that I generally quite enjoyed. I had a harder time connecting with a lot of the LGBT+-focused poems (since I'm a straight male with relatively little experience with those issues), but I really appreciated a lot of the politically charged poems and the ones dealing with mental illness. My personal favorite in the collection was "Depression [Verb]."

Wonderful, eloquent poetry book!! As I was reading it, I was thinking through my contact list of everyone I wanted to tell about this book. It makes you feel like the author completely opened up and let the reader in. I want to read more from this author. Beautiful work!

Consuming poetry has become a chore as of late. As a poet and organiser of a spoken word event, I cut my teeth on Button Poetry – Neil Hilborn’s OCD, to be exact. My entire spoken word community (Wordsmiths of Kuching) has him to thank for even existing.

While much of our own spoken word is inspired by the likes of Button Poetry and poets such as Sarah Kay and Phil Kaye, I was also wary about letting too much Americanism hijack the kind of voices you might find in Sarawak, Borneo.

…that’s not entirely true. I couldn’t care less where my fellow local poets find their voice as long as they use it to speak their truth. I was the one struggling about my own voice and identity.

Andrea Gibson writes a lot about identity, identifying as queer and genderqueer, something that is hard for to comprehend if you’re not in the same position. ‘Lord of the Butterflies’ sheds some of light into Gibson’s life. I read from another article that writing poetry helps them learn about their gender identity, and it’s helped me to understand it a little bit more through their eyes.

"With my gender it was never that I came to the page knowing who I was and wrote it down, but I would write to unpack my gender and learn my gender." - Poet Andrea Gibson Shares How They Learned About Their Gender Identity Through Writing – Seventeen, May 2, 2018

As poets, we do this more often than not – unpack the big issues and the little details in our work. A lot of single-poet collections are a window into their lives at the time of writing, something that must be both difficult and cathartic.

I can relate. Not to their experience as a person, but to the inevitability of deep self-examination and revelations that may be impossible to bring up in casual conversation. Some of these revelations are relatable to everyone. This for example:

Of all the violence I have known in my life
I have never known violence

like the violence I have spoken to myself,
and I have seen almost everyone round me

hold the same belt to their own back,
an ambush of every way we’ve decided we’re not enough,

then looking for someone outside of ourselves
to clean that treason up.

Boomerang Valentine – Andrea Gibson

And this delightful moment of cheese meets wit meets me cry-laughing:

When she’s down I want to give her my best
pick-up lines. What’s your sign?

My sign has historically been STOP
but since meeting you I’ve changed it

to MERGE.

Give Her – Andrea Gibson

This is the kind of word-fu I stayed around for when I found spoken word. I am constantly moved by those who can take their journey and turn it into an art form that tells the rest of us we are not alone. Yes, our pain comes in different shapes but the power of voice brings us together.

Most of the pieces in ‘Lord of the Butterflies’ are also on Gibson’s album ‘Hey Galaxy’, which can be found on Spotify.

ARC courtesy of NetGalley.

Unique writing and story that kept me interested. A story that had me wanting to read more. Relatable characters and a good flow. Would recommend!

Gibson's poems hit you right in the heart. They're raw, blunt, unyielding in their insight of violence, love, loss, gender, sexuality, and so much more. Some of my favorites include: Ode to the Panic Attack and America Wakes Me In the Middle of the Night. Both spoke to my own anxieties and I felt those two pieces of poetry really spoke to everyone at some point in their lives.

I have loved Andrea Gibson's work for some time now. Their words are cutting and pointed and vulnerable and I've loved everything this poet has put to page. The deeply personal struggles of a young person not quite fitting in with world around them, the idea of building a family for yourself because your own is a mess, all of it just resonates with me so deeply. I love this book and can't wait to buy hard copy of it as soon as I can. Thank you, for sharing your voice, Gibby. I appreciate it more than you'll ever know.

With poems giving insight into complex issues such as gender, romance, loss, gun violence and even politics, Andrea Gibson presents her poetry in a thoughtful, if dramatic manner. For me, I struggled to connect. I feel so far removed from these experiences and I think that made it difficult for them to make an impact on me. As poetry is so personal however, I do think that there will be readers who relate and find comfort in this collection, but it sadly wasn't for me.