Split This Rock Poem-of-the-Week: Andrea Gibson

This is for the possibility that guides us

and for the possibilities still waiting to sing

and spread their wings inside us,

‘cause tonight Saturn is on his knees

proposing with all of his ten thousand rings

that whatever song we’ve been singing we sing even more.

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.

-Andrea Gibson

Excerpt from “Say Yes” from Pole Dancing to Gospel Hymns (Write Bloody Publishing 2008). Used by permission.

Andrea Gibson, a powerful live performer, was the winner of the 2008 Women of The World Poetry Slam (Detroit), and has placed 3rd in the world for the last three years by the iWPS. She won a DIY Poetry Book of the Year and was nominated for a Pushcart Prize for her first book, Pole Dancing to Gospel Hymns. She has been showcased on Free Speech TV, the documentary Slam Planet, NPR, Air America, and Independent Radio Stations nationwide. She has recorded four full-length albums of poetry, the most recently, Yellowbird, in which her poetry is accompanied by piano, global drums, dobro, violin, and music by Kim Taylor, Chris Pureka, and Devotchka. The Denver Westword has said, “If slamming were professional boxing, Andrea Gibson would be the light weight you don’t think much of until she’s knocked you flat on your ass.” www.andreagibson.org

Gibson was featured at Split This Rock Poetry Festival: Poems of Provocation & Witness, March 10-13, 2010 in Washington, DC. The festival presented readings, workshops, panel discussions, youth programming, film, and activism—four days of creative transformation as we imagine a way forward, hone our community and activist skills, and celebrate the many ways that poetry can act as an agent for social change. For more information: info@splitthisrock.org. Be on the lookout for dates for the next festival in 2012!

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