Pole Dancing to Gospel Hymns

by Andrea Gibson

Andrea Gibson’s dynamic and energetic first book, Pole Dancing to Gospel Hymns, challenges us to not only read, but to react. Hauntingly vivid, the poems march through a soldier's lingering psychological wounds, tackle the curious questions of school children on the meaning of "hate", and tangle with a lover's witty and vibrant description of longing. Gibson's poems deconstruct the current political climate through stunning imagery and careful crafting. With the same velocity, the poignant and vacillating love poems sweep the air out of the room. It’s word-induced hypoxia. Pole Dancing to Gospel Hymns whispers with a bold and unforgettable internal voice rich with the kind of questioning that inspires action. Andrea Gibson does not just show up to pluck your heart strings, she sticks around to tune them. If being floored is new to you, ya might wanna grab a cushion. Beware the highway in her grace and the crowbar in her verse. -Buddy Wakefield, "Live for a Living" To call her one of the best poets would be a gross understatement. Her words cut so sharply and completely they cannot be shaken. She is a rare artist who forever changes those who experience her poems." -Carlos Andres Gomez, HBO Def-Poet/co-star Spike Lee’s Inside Man

Genres: Poetry, Queer, LGBT, Nonfiction, Feminism, Romance, Gender

72 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 13, 2008

About the author

Andrea Faye Gibson was an American poet and activist. Their poetry focused on gender norms, politics, social justice, LGBTQ topics, life, and mortality. Gibson was appointed as the Poet Laureate of Colorado in 2023.

Reviews

[s.penkevich [hiatus-will return-miss you all] · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘Lover, this is not just another poem.
This is my goddamn revolt.’

An old favorite book of poetry is like a favorite threadbare pair of pants. They are comforting to slip into and while some seams seem to be a little worse for wear, they still bring you joy in the present while carrying the fragrance of the past along with them. In the wake of poet Andrea Gibson’s tragic early passing, I dug out my well-loved and very dog-earred copy of their evocatively titled debut collect, Pole Dancing to Gospel Hymns, and found myself blissfully transported back to younger days when the edginess cut like a knife to my angsty heart while reflecting on how Gibson is still finding a way to touch and heal weary souls even beyond their own lifeline. Moving through love poems, political poems, poems wrestling with religious trauma, occupying one’s own body, queer identity, poems about being ‘up all night painting the wind / to remind myself that things are moving,’ and more, Gibson’s expertise as a champion slam-poem come rhythmically rocking across each page and tugging your heartstrings to get them dancing along. A collection that may show a little wear and tear with age, but a brilliant and emotional collection that is dear to my heart nonetheless.

‘Life doesn’t rhyme.
Life is poetry, not math.
All the world’s a stage
But the stage is a meditation mat.
You tilt your head back.
You breathe.
When your heart is broken you plant seeds in the cracks
And you prat for rain.
And you teach your sons and daughters
There are sharks in the water
But the only way to survive
Is to breathe deep
And dive.’
—from Dive

I first recall learning of Andrea Gibson from their poetry slam videos, which, truthfully, was also my first experience with slam poetry. While I personally like poems that are more at home on the page, I was enthralled by the two-fisted barrage of emotion that flowed so effortlessly here. ‘Feelings were always smarter things than thoughts,’ Gibson writes and this collection is just teeming with brilliant feelings. The sort that shimmer in the dark to light your way back to yourself. I love this collection, though looking back some of it feels a bit wanting without the performance element and some of the more edgy lines don’t have the same scathing sharpness that they did for me a decade ago. Take, for instance, the poem Anything with lines that certainly felt scandelously sweet when I first read them:

Tonight I’d swear the man in the moon is a rapist,
And stars are nothing but scars,
Bullet wounds from humanity’s drive-by
Firing at the face of the sky.
Tonight crying would be too easy.

Not that there’s anything wrong with them, but to read these poems is to really remember exactly what the aught years felt like in the art scenes and I realize I prefer their later work. Still, I quite love it to this day and Gibson can spin language into gold with the best of them.

Tadpoles

A tadpole doesn’t know
It’s gonna grow bigger.
It just swims,
And figures limbs
Are for frogs.

People don’t know
The power they hold.
They just sing hymns,
And figure saving
Is for god.

Gibson certainly comes swinging in this collection. The scars of religious trauma and homophobia permeate the pages with Gibson offering solace through relatability for those who have also experienced how ‘the holy have done more damage to this word / than the devil ever could’ as they write in Every Month . There are a lot of political elements as well, such as For Eli dealing with the Iraq war in which Gibson writes ‘Our eyes are closed, America. / There are souls in the boots of the soldiers, America. / Fuck your yellow ribbon.’ Gibson also fine-tunes and sharpens her words best in poems of heartbreak and love. They still manage to pull all my heart strings, such as in the poem Anything where they describe a break-up leaving them ‘guilty with the blood of something beautiful all over me’ and full of remorse:

‘I Wanted to be eighty together,
I wanted to birth poems like babies together
And watch them grow up to save the world.’

Yet there is plenty of love to be found too. I especially like when love becomes its own sort of art, where love and poetry begin to blend together such as when Gibson writes ‘you’re every poem I would write / if ink could ever hold the light’ of their lover. Page after page is an explosion of deeply felt emotion that is certain to stick with you.

Pole Dancing to Gospel Hymns really brought Andrea Gibson into our lives and we have all been better for it. I am saddened of their passing and yet I’ve found myself pouring through their poetry again so happy that they were alive even if for a short while. This is a wonderful book and I will treasure it always.

4.5/5

‘I know this world is far from perfect.
I am not the type to mistake a streetlight for the moon.
I know our wounds are deep as the Atlantic.
But every ocean has a shoreline
and every shoreline has a tide
that is constantly returning
to wake the songbirds in our hands,
to wake the music in our bones,
to place one fearless kiss on the mouth of that brave river
that has to run through the center of our hearts
to find its way home.’
—From Birthday

[Gerhard · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the first poetry collection from Andrea Gibson I have ever read. I wished it included a more comprehensive biography, because a lot of the poems seem to refer to events and people in Gibson’s life that render them a bit obscure to the casual reader.

Gibson also specialises in ‘slam poetry’, I think it is called, which is basically performative poetry. I suspect that many of the pieces here that seem quite bland on the page must really come to life when uttered in person on stage to a rapt audience. There are also a lot of colloquialisms and slang terms used that may seem jarring when read, but probably add a lot of colour when uttered aloud.

My experience in reading this is best encapsulated by referring to two poems. The first one is called ‘El Mozote’, which contains the following section:

And she was only one of over 900 innocent people
tortured and killed that day at the massacre at El Mozote,
funded by the USA.
A crime covered up and denied by our government for years
because the killers were trained
in the School of the Americas, Ft. Benning, Georgia.

Okay, I am still non-plussed as to exactly why this is considered poetry. To me, it is just a rather stark statement of fact (which could, of course, be the point.)

Then there is the quite extraordinary poem ‘Say Yes’, probably my favourite out of the entire collection:

This is for the no becoming yes
For scars becoming breath
For saying I love you to people who will never say it to us
For scraping away the rust and remembering how to shine
For the dime you gave away when you didn’t have a penny
For the many beautiful things we do
For every song we’ve ever sung
For refusing to believe in miracles
because miracles are the impossible coming true
and everything is possible

So basically this is a poetry collection that covers a rather extraordinary breadth of subject matter, style and emotion. It is an intense, demanding experience that forces the reader to pay attention to both the words themselves, and the shadows they cast.

[Pauliina K · Rating 4 out of 5]

all kinds of heavy and sad and radical and loud and beautiful.

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is magnificent in every sense of the word. I loved it and, even more than I did before, I love Andrea Gibson. I cannot really say much on it because I don't read a lot of poetry, so I have nothing really to compare this too, but I thoroughly enjoyed this. Please read this book. It's eye opening, in my opinion.

[Emily]

"Wake me, wake me when the American dream is over."

Rest in peace Andrea Gibson <3

[Maya Kaur Bhogal · Rating 2 out of 5]

considering i have abandoned my book review snapchat story, i think that i’ll take to goodreads to review when it feels warranted. and in this case i feel a review is warranted. as in i can hardly understand why people can rate something so low or so high without explaination.

so this poetry anthology did disappoint me, maybe because of my natural attraction to the title and the writer. however, i think i just didn’t get on with the ‘slam-poetry’ style of writing, or was i just bored of the content in general? now i’m not going to sit here and devalidate andrea gibson’s experience, but her writing just felt so similar to a lot i’ve read before. whilst what she writes about is of deep importance, there was no new experience that captivated me. perhaps that is my fault for staying in my comfort zone.

i also do think i struggle in general with millennial poetry in general, as it often comes across as self-entitled and pretentious. if any of you know of some millennial written poetry that doesn’t make u wanna stick your head in an oven, lmk :))

so would I recommend this? to new poetry readers, i suppose. the style is basic and accessible enough and would be decent exposure to important themes. however when i read poetry i sort of want it to hit a nerve, or a heartstring, or at least a small incentive in my head, and this left my body kind of dissatisfied.

[Reading_ Tamishly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one is really hard-hitting!💯

I don't think I will read something better than this from the same author ever again.

This one is serious with themes of disturbed childhood, times of war and turmoil, misunderstood adolescence, misleading politics, abuse, mistaken identity and gender issues, sexuality, race, religion and love.

I am so lost in this one.

Poetry moments.

[Colin Cox · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I read Andrea Gibson's Pole Dancing to Gospel Hymns, I think of one poet: Walt Whitman. In many respects, Gibson's first book reads like Whitman's seminal text: "Song of Myself." Whitman's blade of grass ("A child said What is the grass? fetching it to me with full hands; / How could I answer the child? I do not know what it is any more than he") becomes the oft-mentioned and equally enigmatic star in Pole Dancing to Gospel Hymns. For example, in "Anything," Gibson writes:

but you never wish on shooting stars
you wish on the ones
that have the courage to shine where
they are,
no matter how dark the night.

This sharp turn of phrase cuts two ways. It is simultaneous a point of fascination and a point of departure. As Gibson suggests, the shooting star is too fantastical; it must be supplanted for something more grounded and real. Yet, this star worms its way into many of Gibson's poems. It is to Gibson what zoo music is to Patricia Lockwood in "What Is the Zoo for What," always "attacking / the happy wagging ends of my poems." In the collection's penultimate poem, "Say Yes," Gibson's star returns not as something we must reconfigure, reject or recontextualize, but as something we must embrace. Gibson writes:

The world needs us right now more
than it ever has before.
Pull all your strings.
Play every chord.
If you're writing letters to the
prisoners
start tearing down the bars.
If you're handing out flashlights in
the dark
start handing out stars.

Gibson encourages their reader to adopt one of Whitman's edicts: Surrender. "Say Yes" ends with a rousing call to action:

You have a song like a breath that
could raise us
like the sunrise into a dark sky that
cries to be blue.
Play like you know we won't survive if
you don't
but we will if you do.
Play like Saturn is on his knees
proposing with all of his ten thou-
sand rings
that we give every single breath.
This is for saying, YES.
This is for saying, YES.

This surrendering, though, is not a passive, powerless act. It is, in fact, the source of one's power. Gibson's words, for example, echo Whitman's final lines in "Song of Myself." There he writes:

I bequeathe myself to the dirt, to grow from the grass I love;
If you want me again, look for me under your boot-soles.

You will hardly know who I am, or what I mean;
But I shall be good health to you nevertheless,
And filter and fibre your blood.

Gibson's star filters and fibers the blood of Pole Dancing to Gospel Hymns, and by doing so, it gestures toward Whitman's transcendentalism but with a cosmic twist. Whitman's rebirth ("look for me under your boot-soles") becomes phoenix in form for Gibson. It is a cosmic rebirth.

There is something worth saying about how Gibson references soldiers in her work as well. Gibson is a queer poet, and by referencing soldiers with such tenderness and care, I want to imagine they are doing the work of queering them. Queer theory is a refusal of sorts. It is a refusal of clearly-defined identities and the ideological injunctions that produce them. By placing the soldier in their work, Gibson attempts to wrestle the soldier away from the exclusive confines of a particular political group. Gibson's queer soldier is a disruptive subject, given more agency and recognition than neo-conservative warmongers would ever afford them. To put it simply enough: They become human in Gibson's work.

[Sleepless Dreamer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I just got back from watching Maleficent 2. Without spoiling anything, there's a scene that mirrors a gas chamber. And this absolutely terrible scene doesn't get addressed. The main sentence that gets repeated is, "we should move on, let's think about the future", as if innocents didn't get killed in this way. I can't get that scene out of my head, I've never seen such a visualization of the Holocaust (and, I guess, North Korea).

And yes, this is a review about Andrea Gibson's poetry and not Maleficent 2 but thinking about the film led me to think about healing broken things. And that's really what their poetry is all about, as I see it.

This short book talks about the author's own experience with mental health issues while also talking about political issues. They manage to play around with the combination of both, expressing how they're correlated.

There's this conversation about how broken everything is, both politically and individually. Andrea Gibson manages to express how horrible this is while still infusing everything hope. They acknowledge the pain, speak up about the mistakes of the past, about knowing your history, knowing who you are and what's brought you to this state and yet, being able to regrow, through an understanding. To be hopeful and powerful at the same time. It's almost as if their poetry manage to live in the future and the past in the same time.

Andrea Gibson has a way with words. They manage to make me feel, to make me upset and excited and just here, present in their words.

Admittedly, I liked Take Me With You more. It felt closer to who I am and spoke to me more. But this is great as well. More political, closer to conventional poetry but just as beautiful.

All in all, this is so relevant. I'm definitely going to read more of their poetry.

what I'm taking with me
• Real talk, I could write an article about how Andrea Gibson's ideas could have influenced the plot of Maleficent 2.
• Non-binary pride!
• There's something magical about their writing, as if nature and fairies and witchcraft co-exist and are going to defeat every war.

[iltatee · Rating 5 out of 5]

En ees tiiä mitä sanoa, näissä niin paljon osui sellaisiin juttuihin joita en tienny olevankaan. Psyykkisiin, kielellisiin. Miten kauniita ja riipiviä ja korjaavia!

[Jahnie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Andrea Gibson was the first spoken word poet I followed. It was she who drew me to the beauty of spoken word poetry and slam performances. I have been wanting to read one of her books for a long time, so imagine my delight to finally read one. (Thanks, Anybooks.)

Reading her poetry is a different experience from listening to her read it aloud or watching her perform. But, there is a distinct rhyme in Andrea's words, and her insight and messages are loud and clear; they deliver, regardless of a performance.

[Ashley Marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sublime

[Jolene · Rating 2 out of 5]

I bought this after reading the first poem in the bookstore and loving it. Unfortunately, it was the best one. Many of the others were too on the nose for me--perhaps because they're meant to be performed.

[Nic · Rating 4 out of 5]

TW: mentions of su*cidal ideation, r*pe, death, and lynching



There are definite flashes of Andrea Gibson’s brilliance, it’s interesting to see how they’ve evolved and grown as a poet.

[Ivan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow - I blown away by these poems. They cross between funny, ironic and altogether poignant. Gibson died earlier this year - we lost one helluva talent.

[Julia · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really did not like this one! And I really subscribe to “there’s no such thing as a bad book” but .. wow.. I feel like the author called out a lot of injustice in the world (pertaining to communities that they’re not a part of) and then didn’t do anything transformative or interesting with it. Totally understand calling that out - it’s allyship to do so - but I think something should be done with it or it’s trauma porn. All the poems were derivative and boring… I just wouldn’t recommend.

[Schuyler Peck · Rating 5 out of 5]

Andrea Goddess Gibson, is there anyone better? The answer, as you come to finish her book, Pole Dancing to Gospel Hymns, is no.
This book of poetry and art is radiant. Never have I felt a person so express themselves in who they are and what is important to them, than the heart that Andrea leaves on her pages. This is powerful work. She details life in a way that is felt so deeply, I'm both afraid and excited to go out in the world and try to experience it too. This is love and heartbreak bleeding on both pages.
To anyone looking to feel, whether that means to be angry, passionate, love-struck, or to come to tears by words, this is what you've been looking for. Not only is Andrea a miracle on the stage as she performs, but she continues to be in the covers of this book; a small bit of magic you can keep on your shelf.

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've never been one for poetry. I'm a very literal person and lofty metaphors go way over my head ("Animal Farm wasn't just about animals?").

Andrea Gibson's stuff, however, is raw and accessible. She talks eloquently about causes I hold dear and ones I didn't even know existed.

This is an excellent book.

[Owen Townend · Rating 3 out of 5]

I admire poetry with fast-paced wordplay. The kind you expect to see performed with aggressive rhythm, meaningful hand gestures and dramatic pauses. It always seems courageous to me.

That's precisely how I would describe Pole Dancing to Gospel Hymns: courageous. I will admit that I was drawn in by the suggestive title but stuck around for the way that Gibson strings ideas together. The crossing of imagery is seamless and I rarely lost grip of the overall meaning.

While most contemporary poetry leaves me flat, Gibson's verse is filled with raw emotion. It was fascinating to read the ballad of an out-and-proud lesbian bard who has risen up out of her troubled past and is up front about current hardship. Some of her chosen subject matter took me well out of my comfort zone but this collection clearly comes from the heart.

If there were more shorter and funnier poems involved, I would have loved Pole Dancing to Gospel Hymns. For what it is though, it is a collection of poetry that deserves much wider circulation. I recommend Pole Dancing to Gospel Hymns to those looking for stirring verse about heartache in all its forms.

Notable Poetry

• Pole Dancer – a perfect lead-in to Gibson’s expansive multifaceted descriptions of love.

• Swing-Set – a wise poem about gender and sexuality straight from the mouth of babes.

• Stick – a universal expression of intense and delirious love delivered within four lines.

[Kaylie · Rating 4 out of 5]

one of the most excellent things about reading through a poet's catalog is that you can watch their growth. Gibson wrecked me with these poems, as they always do--there were so many to pause over and chew through, to cry about or send to loved ones. you can hear them in these poems, the poet they were when they were written and the poet they have shown themself to be in Lord of the Butterflies. I think Gibson's later work is much stronger, but I only know that because I've read their work out of order--this is a collection full of gut-punches, stand-out poems, and brilliant brutal love.

[Mohammed Abdikhader Firdhiye · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fav poems in the collection that is stronger than 3 stars: "See Through", "Birthday","Swing-Set","When the Bough Breaks".

I look forward to reading more poetry collections of Gibson, at times t there is such power in poets voice that it can almost hit you in the face like the first i saw Gibson reading even better poems at a Spoken word poetry festival in Uppsala, Sweden.

[Karina · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can’t believe I’m just learning about this poet, Andrea Gibson. I also can’t believe I just read a book of poetry in one sitting. I’m overwhelmed by the truth that this person reveals through words. I’m so sad the world no longer has them to continue to write truth to power. I think I’ll need to read everything that they have written.

[Dana Neily · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely amazing. Wondrous lyrics that inspire revolution and celebrate connection in a way that makes these things feel new.

[Lauren Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the most lyrical spoken words poets. Really good!

[Shelby K · Rating 5 out of 5]

This poetry collection was phenomenal. Andrea has an incredible way with words. Their poetry put into words emotions that don’t have names. I cannot wait to read more of their work.

Rest in peace and power, Andrea.

[Jamie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Andrea Gibson ripped my beating heart out and cut it into shreds. Then they pieced it back together and resuscitated me with this book.

[kat · Rating 5 out of 5]

"when your heart is broken you plant seeds in the cracks and pray for rain" god damn it rest in power andrea!! i love you!!

[Agnes Roantree · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this, loved this, loved this

[Gabriela Oprea · Rating 3 out of 5]

this is Andrea's debut and I was definitely not expecting it to be as good as their most recent book which is now one of my favourites. and it wasn't, of course. but I could still see that most of the themes were already there in their poetry, what really grew over time was the style, the metaphors, the construction.

Pole Dancing to Gospel Hymns sometimes has pretty common images, it rarely suprises. it's still heartwarming, but definitely not heartwrenching. and honestly I loved that - I loved that I have the chance to read through their books and see them growing, becoming better, crafting their art.

I do that with all my favourite poets and it's such a great experience, seeing someone you love so much becoming better, becoming truly themselves, it brings me so much closer to them and to their art

[Marina Carneiro · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am madly in love with this book.