You Better Be Lightning

4.8 4.8 out of 5 stars | 651 ratings

Price: 12.25

Last update: 08-16-2024


About this item

You Better Be Lightning ranges from close examination of the deeply personal to the vastness of the world, exploring the expansiveness of the human experience from love to illness, from space to climate change, and so much more in between.

One of the most celebrated poets and performers of the last two decades, Andrea Gibson's trademark honesty and vulnerability are on full display in You Better Be Lightning, welcoming and inviting listeners to be just as they are.


Top reviews from the United States

Annette M.
5.0 out of 5 stars Honest, heart-opening poems that revive your faith in humanity
Reviewed in the United States on April 5, 2024
Such a beautiful collection about real and hard things (aka human life) but shared in a generous and heart-expanding way. Very accessible, and although marketed with a focus on LGBTQ+ issues, the book has much to offer everyone. Highly recommended even for those who don't normally read poetry.
PDX
5.0 out of 5 stars Profoundly, insightful and meaningful
Reviewed in the United States on May 30, 2024
Andrea Gibson is the poet laureate for the state of Colorado. Her facility with Language, Emotional expression And compassion is remarkable. Highly recommend. She also has some wonderful YouTube videos
Makayla
5.0 out of 5 stars Just lovely.
Reviewed in the United States on July 8, 2024
This was the first volume of their poetry I’ve read and it certainly won’t be the last!
Cha cha cha
5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant
Reviewed in the United States on February 24, 2024
This is such a treasure trove of relatable insight; beautiful, visceral, funny and so warm. I have used their work with clients as a mental health therapist and gifted this book wildly. Not a huge poetry nut, but I have gotten so much from Gibson's gift- thank you!
SD
5.0 out of 5 stars Good read
Reviewed in the United States on July 30, 2024
This book is fun and a bit sassy. It touches uncomfortable emotional subjects with grace and encouragement in the poems within.
Eric Titus
4.0 out of 5 stars Youthful and open
Reviewed in the United States on June 10, 2024
Gibson exudes energy, and their perspective on things is uniquely their own. Even though they call theirself old in one of the poems, I think Gibson feels young, like a 20-something who's all charged up--enamored with beauty, enraged by injustice, and committed to living with intensity and sincerity. That youth, though, can come off as naïvté, sometimes saying self-helpy platitudes that are too idealized to hold much weight (but damn do they feel good to read or hear). And sometimes the form in lines and stanzas feels haphazard. But for whatever critiques I might have of Gibson's words, they did what poetry should: make you feel, not only in the sense of evoking emotion but also in the sense of making you perceive the world anew. I know that whatever faults I might find in the words or content or artistry (my god, how presumptuous and pretentious I have to be to say that), Gibson is more transparent and self-aware than most writers I know, and they chose every word for effect. Gibson respects their own experience, but they also respect me as an audience who has to read and understand that experience through words. And for that reason alone I would recommend their work. "Know thyself" is age-old advice, and I feel Gibson is a sage.
Milissa
5.0 out of 5 stars This book broke me and then reminded me why that's beautiful...
Reviewed in the United States on December 11, 2021
There is lightening between the covers of this book. Every time I read it again I am struck by something I missed, or struck again by something I can't shake.

I'm a collector. I have more books than walls so every room in our house is a miniature library. Of course, like all good stewards, I have my quirks... and the most stringent rule is to never break a spine. They always look new and enticing, as if they are all still untapped wilds waiting to be explored. I pride myself on the control of reading through a book without ever opening it wide enough to crack. When it came in the male I was thrilled, turned it over on its side and smiled. Andrea Gibson You Better Be Lightening Button Poetry tucked into the stars of a pristine, night sky spine.

I carried it around for a few days, peaking now and then, choosing a poem at random...I think I broke their record for goosebumps on the first day. This morning I sat on the back porch with my Saturday morning coffee and the last nasty habit I can't quite shake, finally able to read it from cover to cover, page by delicious page. I was so lit by the words echoing off my heart I couldn't bear to set it aside, even to reach for the coffee... without hesitation I balanced the precious book in one hand, using two fingers on either side of the spine for balance, I slipped the other two fingers inside and with my thumb as leverage, opened it wide.

It happened with a cloud of smoke ringing my head while I breathed over the steamy cup, sighing at the lightening flash of insight into my crippling time traveling addiction. I don't know if I felt it or heard it... you know how it is when you twist your body some way and something happens in your back, something so subtle you aren't even sure how you know...and for an eternity of a second you're hovering on the edge of pain and relief.... is it broken?... or is it just a feel-good crack back into place?...

Devastation washed over me, and like my life flashing before my yes I traveled back 20 years, my 30-something-year-old self, smiling through the back breaking weight of an untenable situation, waiting to steel moments of escape between the pages of a book, and the fantasy of a world where spines are never broken.

Lightening

I wandered into the house in a haze and found myself on the floor my office holding one of the only books in my collection that is ... marred... I’ve had it since I was 12. A wonder, an age-inappropriate treat, taken from a woman I babysat for... It’s damage suddenly looked like the art of love... white lines of use running up and down the spine, scars I created with careless abandon as I whipped myself into a frenzy of forbidden knowledge and ideas. ... Somewhere along the way, I stopped having enough gratitude for simply living to Truly love, and indulge in, a good story... I think this cracked spine is just the beginning of finding something I lost within myself a long time ago.

I hope others, who need it, will read this book and find the courage to stop fearing the storm and just decide to be the lightening....

Thank you Andrea Gibson, your words are reaching people in a way you might never have imagined.
Collin
5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful!
Reviewed in the United States on May 29, 2024
I love this beautiful book of poems ????

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