It Becomes You: Poems

by Dobby Gibson

“Dobby Gibson’s poetry . . . is equal parts tender, triumphant, exhilarating, disturbing, and thought provoking: it’s fantastic.” (The Corresponder)

* Shortlisted for the Believer Poetry Award *

From the backs of the books I love and am terrified by,
the great thinkers stare back at me
with little encouragement.
I am prepared to follow them anywhere!
 
—from “Ago”
 
Meditative, lyrical, aphoristic, and always leavened with a wry wit, the poems in Dobby Gibson’s It Becomes You explore the divergent conditions by which we’re perpetually defined—the daily weather, the fluctuations of the Dow, the growth of a cancer cell, the politics of the day. What surrounds us becomes us, Gibson suggests, in a book that will ultimately become you.

Genres: Poetry

96 pages, Paperback

First published January 8, 2013

About the author

Dobby Gibson is the author of Polar (Alice James Books), which won the 2004 Beatrice Hawley Award, and Skirmish (Graywolf Press).

Reviews

[Will · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just some quick notes on this collection. A recurring (and not overbearing) theme is how we communicate with each other in light of new technologies, especially when we're trying to share some snippet of true beauty with another human (not machine) being. Apologies if that makes this collection seem influenced by science fiction; it's not, at least not overtly. Gibson is at turns funny and heart-breaking, which made this collection very hard to put down (so I didn't until I finished it). "Self-Reliance" is among the best poems I've read in the past year.

[Kathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really love this book. The discriptions are crisp and unpretentious and I just wanted to drift along in the flow of thought. I began marking poems to come back to and reread after I finished, but I ended up marking almost all of them. My husband and I stayed up late one night first laughing at and then discussing the deeper truths in the "40 fortunes."

Disclaimer: I received this book from the goodreads giveaway program.

[Guinevere DelaMare · Rating 4 out of 5]

"At some point, which is another way
of saying now, your tireless indecision
over what to do with your life
becomes precisely what you have done with your life."

This is just one of the many passages in Dobby Gibson's book of poems that dropped into the pit of my stomach and stayed there, aching like nothing but the truth can.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderfully accessible and just plain fun. I especially enjoyed this selection of poems and in particular, a must read is "40 Fortunes" which I could easily see myself pulling out of some random fortune cookie. It seems there is no item or subject so insignificant for which Gibson can't create meditative poetry.

[Vincent Scarpa · Rating 4 out of 5]

"40 Fortunes" alone is worth the purchase price. These poems are smart, thoughtful, funny, desperate, pessimistic, hopeful, and full of tenderness. Dobby's COOL.

[SLT · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent, moving, funny, inspiring, thought-provoking. Highly recommend.

[Nina Roman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I remember buying a copy of It Becomes You (2013) way back during my freshmen year of high school. At that time in my life, I was writing poetry quite a bit and considered myself to be an artist /starving/ for some guidance and inspiration. This chapbook served.

It’s very heartwarming to see all these years later how I never forgot what local poet Dobby Gibson taught me. His work utilizes the stream of consciousness technique, and he trades meaning for feeling. Quite often while reading this, sentences don’t make either semantic or syntactical sense, but Gibson speaks through subliminal imagery. There’s something primal about reading It Becomes You.

I still find his work inspiring even if it touches me less now than it did ten years ago. Some of it was just a little /too/ out of my grasp, but I’m positive some would say the same thing about my poetry. Gibson is bold and anyone who wishes to be more daring in their own creative endeavors should check this out.

4/5 stars

[Aaron · Rating 3 out of 5]

Based on some very positive reviews and recommendations from close friends, I really wanted to love this book, but none of it really stuck with me. I don't think Gibson is a bad poet, but I don't think his style is something I enjoy. He could establish great images, but they would last such a short amount of time before he shifted gears to another image or vision or vague ramble about "we" and "you" and the way these people do things. There were too many lines that made me ask "what the hell did that mean," then move on, instead of feeling motivated to solve it.

Still, some good pieces in here. It's not horrible, just not for me.

[Ubiquitousbastard · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't know if I just don't get modern poetry, but a lot of the poems in this collection sort of seemed like disjointed rambles. If I remember correctly, it is all in free verse, which makes it even more difficult to tie together things that are meant to be connected. I'm not a huge fan of poetry, and the more obscurely metaphorical the wording, the more I don't get it. Maybe it's also because it seems to be written from the point of view of a middle-aged suburbanite, so some of the lack of connection to the content could be because of that.

[Terry · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really did enjoy the poems in this collection and I’ll certainly give Dobby Gibson another chance. I enjoyed his local references, and many of his poems are hysterical. However, there were many I just didn’t get. Might be I’m too old to get the humor or the point.

[Rhi G · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The poems were original and meaningful, which I appreciated. One of my favorites of this collection was "Self-Reliance."