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Andrea Gibson Lyrics

I offen repeat myself
and the second time's a lie
I love you
I love you
See what I mean I don't
and I do
and I'm not talking about some girl I may be kissing on
I'm talking about this world I'm blissing on and hating at the exact same time
See life doesn't rhyme
It's bullets and windchimes

It's lynchings and birthday parties
It's the rope that ties the noose and the rope that hangs the backyard swing
It's the boy about to take his life
and with a knife to his wrist he's thinking of only two things
His father's fist
and his mother kiss
and he can't stop crying
It's wanting tonight to speak the most honest poem I've ever spoken in my life
Not knowing if that poem should bring you closer to living or dying
Drowning or flying
Cause life doen't rhyme
Last night I prayed myslef to sleep
woke this morning to find God's obituary scrolled in tears on my sheets
Then walked outside to hear my neighbor erasing ten thousand years of hard labor
With a single note of his violin
and the sound of the traffic rang like a hymn
as the holiest leaf of autumn fell from a plastic tree limb
Beautiful- and ugly
Like right now
I'm needing nothing more then for you to hug me
and if you do I'm going to scream like a caged bird
See life doen't rhyme
Sometimes love is a vulgar word
Sometimes hate calles itself peace on the nightly news
I heard saints preaching trues that would've burned me at the stake
I've heard poets teling lies that made me delieve in Heaven
Sometimes I imagine Hitler at seven years old
A paintbrush in his hand at school
Thinking what color should I paint my soul
Sometimes I remember myself with track marks on my tounge
From shooting up convictions that would've hung innocent men from trees
Have you ever seen a mother falling to her knees
The day her son dies in a war she voted for
Can you imagine how many gay teenage lives were saved
The day Matthew Shepard died
Could there have been anything louder
Then the noise inside his father's head
When he begged the jury
Please don't take the lives of the men who turned my son's skull to powder
And I know nothing would make my family prouder
Then given up everything I believe in
Still nothing keeps me believing like the sound of my mother breathing
Life doen't rhyme
It's tasting a rapist's breath on the neck of a woman who loves you more than anyone as loved you before
Then feeling holy a Jesus
Beneath the hands of a one night stand who's calling somebody elses name
It's you never feeling more greedy
Than when you're handing out dollars to the needy
It's my not eating meat for the last seven years
And seeing the kindest eyes I've ever seen in my life from the face of a man with a branding iorn in his hand
A beat down baby calf whailing at his feet
It's you coking on your beliefs
It's your worst sin saving your fucking life
It's the devil's kinfe carving holes in your soul so Angels will have a place to make their way inside
Life doesn't rhyme
Still life is poetry not math
All the Worlds a stage
But the stage is a medditation match
You tilt your head back
You breathe
When your heart is broken you plant seeds in the cracks and you pray for rain
You teach your sons and daughters there a sharks in the water
but the only way to survive is to breathe deep and dive

Contributed by Samantha L. Suggest a correction in the comments below.

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Andrea moved from New Orleans to Colorado in 1999, where they began attending weekly poetry readings at Denver's political hub, The Mercury Café. In a years time they had rushed the scene, making their mark with the 2000 Denver Slam Team at The National Poetry Slam in Providence, Rhode Island. In the same year, Andrea joined Vox Feminista, a multi-passionate performance tribe of radical, political women bent on social change through cultural revolution. Read Full BioAndrea moved from New Orleans to Colorado in 1999, where they began attending weekly poetry readings at Denver's political hub, The Mercury Café. In a years time they had rushed the scene, making their mark with the 2000 Denver Slam Team at The National Poetry Slam in Providence, Rhode Island. In the same year, Andrea joined Vox Feminista, a multi-passionate performance tribe of radical, political women bent on social change through cultural revolution. They went on to become a four-time Denver Grand Slam Champion. Andrea took 4th place out of 350 poets in the individual finals at the 2004 National Poetry Slam in St. Louis, while simultaneously leading Team Denver to a 2nd place title in the team competition.

Andrea has headlined everywhere from the Nuyorican Poet's Café, to Pride Fests and Lady Fests, to high schools and universities throughout the country. They have been showcased on Free Speech TV, Dyke TV, the documentary Slam Planet, and Independent Radio Stations nationwide. They are featured on New York City's 2004 Best of Urbana CD, and are currently a member of the prestigious Bullhorn Collective "comprised of 30 of the highest ranking slam poets and most accomplished performance poets in the world." They have shared the stage with such names as Leslie Feinberg, Amy Goodman, Dennis Kucinich and KRS1.

Andrea's poetry deconstructs the foundations of the current political machine, highlighting issues such as patriarchy, gender norms, white-supremacy, and capitalist culture. Their words are honest, humble and "oh my god, I can't believe you said that in public!" (ex-girlfriend #4).

Andrea is an independent artist who has self-released four CDs, Bullets and Windchimes (2003), Swarm (2004), When The Bough Breaks (2006), and Yellowbird (2009).

They have also self published three books, Trees That Grow in Cemeteries, Yellow Bird, and What the Yarn Knows of Sweaters.

Write Bloody Publishing published their nationally distributed collection of poems in 2008, Pole Dancing To Gospel Hymns.

Andrea uses they/them pronouns.

from: http://www.andreagibson.org/