Lord of the Butterflies

Lord of the Butterflies. By Andrea Gibson. Minneapolis, Minnesota: Button Poetry, Exploding Pinecone Press. Paperback, 95 pp. $16.00

“Now I gotta let you know—this is a true story.” This line in “Living Proof” embodies the beauty of Andrea Gibson’s Lord of the Butterflies. Their honesty and sincerity are clear throughout the collection. Their powerful voice cuts through the pages and allows the reader to feel as though they are having a conversation directly with Gibson. Themes of queerness, love, heartbreak, politics, and health—both physical and mental—are explored throughout the collection. Gibson ties a string connecting these topics from the first page to the last page. “Your Life”, the first poem in the collection, reads:

Mary Levine calls you a dyke

and you don’t have the language to tell her she’s wrong

and right.

Gibson, never shy about revealing intimate details of their life in poetry, echoes this image of queerness in the last poem of the collection, explaining:

 and I’d sleep for hours until we reached your house.

The first time in my life I’d ever rested,

the first time I didn’t have to play a role

I’d never really want to get.

                        (“First Love”)

While the themes in this collection may be uncomfortable at times, they contain a truth that begs to be heard. Gibson initiates a dialogue on gun violence in several poems, including “America Reloading” and “Orlando”, which pays homage to the lives lost in the Pulse Night Club shooting that took place in June 2016. They reenforce the bonds people have unfortunately formed over surviving loss or unacceptance. “Orlando” beats through the hearts of the LGBTQ+ community, as well as those who have lost someone to gun violence, while still being respectful of those that lost their lives or lost loved ones. Gibson beautifully writes:

If you are alive, raise your hand.

 I was sleeping in a hotel

 in the Midwest at the time

but I imagine in that exact moment

my hand twitched in my sleep,

some unconscious part of me aware

that I had a pulse,

that I was alive.

                        (“Orlando”)

This stanza, detailing a true event, delineates the pain that ties the LGBTQ+ community together. Gibson illuminates connections between tragedies facing everyone, as well as internal battles those struggling with physical or mental illness confront. In “Gender in the Key of Lyme Disease”, Gibson exquisitely illustrates a link between the mystery of gender and living with a painful disease:

My hero used a new pronoun in the eulogy.

I’m always thinking about the gender            of dying,

and the gender of surviving

[…]

there isn’t a healthy body in the world

            that is stronger than a sick person’s spirit.

Gibson creates an atmosphere that is welcoming and embracive within their poetry. Lord of the Butterflies reflects upon several themes and demonstrates how heavily these topics can weigh on a person’s mind. Beyond simply serving as a voice for their readers, Gibson creates an air of modernity and genuineness in poems like “Dear Tinder”. Gibson tackles a variety of forms within their book, including traditional, mirror, and prose. Multiple poems in the collection serve as definitions. “White Feminism [Noun]” reads:

            A racism that claims

            it is at least better

            than no feminism at all,

            like at least Hitler

            was a vegetarian.

In spite of the sincerity and heaviness of their topics, Gibson displays contemporary humor. The honesty and reality that Gibson depicts throughout their poetry is a testament to who they are as both a poet and a person.

Lord of the Butterflies by Andrea Gibson is powerful book for anyone looking for a place to connect across topics plaguing everyone. Their poetry is for everyone. Within their poetry, you will find the truth where it is hardest to face, relatability when you need comfort, and community to know you are not alone. Gibson offers a voice for the queer, frustrated, heartbroken, in-love, and everyone in-between. If you are searching for a collection of poems that beautifully considers difficult truths, you can find a home within Lord of the Butterflies by Andrea Gibson.

— Peyton Sibert