"Jellyfish" by Andrea Gibson

[chensonwrites]

the only American performance poet who has really stolen my imagination.

[howmanycharacterscan]

BAHA my name is in this poem. yay.

[TheNatoriousfat]

i. love. you. so. much. <3

[noraclairemiller]

i am in love with you

[HarmonicaPlayingTrek]

The doctor once told me I feel too much. I said "So does God. That's why you can see the Grand Canyon from the moon."

[Bulletyme]

like......OMG. Love. Love. Love. Inspired. Touched. Had to press pause just to keep up with the metaphors. and they each blasted open my mind and heart.

[hannahsweeney19]

oh andrea gibson you are amazing, i can't even begin begin to comprehend how talented you are.

does any one have any recomendments for some similar talented slam poets?

[eolvera1234]

@hannahsweeney19 Buddy Wakefield(:

[Peebody333x2]

I was expecting Jeffery Dallas

[jonahharper]

"Do you ever think about God's ears?"

[kebabsalat]

I don't know how to comprehend this...

too much for me



[spacecase8888]

Beautiful poem. Beautiful video. Rock on Andrea! <3

[HylianLycan]

Wow.

I told my friend when he sent me this that I didn't really like poetry.

I now have a favorite poet.

[0BeautifulMusic0]

She is my favorite poet of all time.

[bajilly]

You're not really supposed to understand poetry like this. No one could fully understand it. It's more so the rhythm, flow and sync the combination of words make when they are read aloud. It's gentle, composed, collective writing formed in to a pristine cluster of emotion sounding like a bell.

[bajilly]

@bajilly The point is not to understand the poem as a word for word, it's to understand the emotion behind the poem as a whole. While you may not understand each line throughout the whole piece, you should be concluding that she is writing about love & misery - but overall, poetry like this is supposed to make you think and have your own opinion of it's meaning.

[x0xGarx0x]

I love you!

Your amzeing..you make me cry. It is great!

[ZebraAwesomeness22]

"my heart is a runway, I've been staring at the sky since my love took off." amazing

[Houseoflocals]

I found this video by accident, heard about a minute of it, and was brought to tears. Still am, by the way. I've heard very few things as beautiful as this. Very impressed, very humbled.

[anotherhayley86]

How does she write like this? It's incredible, breathtaking and completely enthralling.

[Joalarblafaw]

she keeps making me cry. i've needed it!

[psyonicB]

I watched the video, and after that I was thinking, "wha?"

I really didnt understand it.

[MzAlkie]

this is lovely.

[MzAlkie]

this is lovely.

[itsjessina]

I don't like writing poems and stuff but u are realy inspiring me go try my hardest next time I am assigned it... Great poems going to find more

[vanillavinefly]

"i've been staring at the sky since my love took off."

[redcattledogblue]

Hey folks, buy Andrea's book. Support her writing if you love her spoken word - pay for it. :) Just search online bookstores...The publishing house WRITE BLOODY publishes some amazing spoken word poets, Andrea included. If you believe in supporting artists, please give this post a thumbs up so it stays up the top and people see it. xxx

[scrapbooksue]

Wow, I'm 15 and this is one of the most inspiring poems I've ever heard. Love it!

[TheFlameoftheWest]

Loved it

[chlosepher]

this is my absolute favorite poem. It speaks to me in so many ways. I can't even describe how symbolic and touching it is to me. Andrea Gibson, you inspire me.

Is there anywhere i can read the lyrics to this?

[AMeanderingSoul]

My gills are adjusting to the air/ The story husk peeled from my bones/ My bones know the song of our tears/ dripping from the faucet/ ticking like a metronome/ I know there is better music/ Even in this cabin full of fever/ tonight I'm catching nothing but the lightning bug/ My body is a mason jar/ transparent as a jellyfish/ I wish for a heart you can see straight through/ for a voice that glows in the dark/ and a few really good friends to skip moon rocks to.

[AMeanderingSoul]

Pull the shield from my wingspan/ Teach me how the candlewax says thank you to the flame/ Tell me how your mother says your name like an orchard going bloom/ Angela/ A doctor once told me I feel too much/ I said so does God/ That's why you can see the Grand Canyon from the Moon/ We're a telescope/ a riverbed/ we're empty lockets melting into gold/ we are hearts breaking bread/ Fold me in the napkin poem/ Pull the tinsel from my hair from all the past I cannot let go/

[AMeanderingSoul]

I'll tell you these poems/ they're my birthmarks/ and I came this close to having them removed/ even kept that voice-box cutter hidden in my shoe the day that flight took off/ but the runway/ it's made of marble/ made of gush/ made of windmill/ made of salt/ and there is a sea of hopechest in every word I speak/ praying to be open by the night/ with its belly full of anchors/ full of yield/

[AMeanderingSoul]

Put your lips here/ Tell me there is music in my blood/ then tell me there is more in my light/ Hang me chandelier from the last night/ I believed this life had to hurt so much/ I am done kneeling in the church of steepled smokestacks/ Done stargazing traincrash/ Give me windsprint/ Tell me my fingerprints are the shape of ripples on a frozen lake/ Tell me my coal mind will never collapse on my heart/

[AMeanderingSoul]

Before you become my friend/ picnic with my rubble/ roadtrip with everyone I left in the dust/ do the laundry from the last time I was loaded/ how she found my trigger and we woke/ with the sheet pulled above our heads/ praying the mortician could make us pretty/ None of us are pretty/ but our ugly has an alibi/ and our gorgeous has a baby sister/ a sand collection or three harmonicas we keep blowing off/ for that flute we carve from our wrists/

[AMeanderingSoul]

Will you punch me in the touch, just once?/ I need to reset my bones/ swingset my ribcage/ so the next time somebody pushes me away/ I'll swing right back to that chisel/ with my marble spine/ Go ahead build me/ Go ahead throw me at the storm like a fisherman's prayer/ Do you ever think about God's ears?/ Wonder if the levy broke a promise?/ Wonder if the wrecking ball was trying to run its fingers soft across the bricks/ but its head was just too heavy?/

[MusicjunkieTrinity]

@AMeanderingSoul is the word touch? "will you punch me in the touch"?

it sounds like shes saying tough/tuff, but that doesnt really make sense. but niether does touch really,

Ive listened to this 10000 times and thats the only line im confused about really.

[AMeanderingSoul]

@MusicjunkieTrinity I'm also confused about that. I've listened to this poem a lot too and although I think she says 'tough/tuff', I wrote 'touch' because I've seen this poem written elsewhere, with that word in. I was going to put a question mark after the word but I decided against it...

[BokuNoMel]

@MusicjunkieTrinity I believe it's "tough"

[AMeanderingSoul]

She said "you are an astronaut clipped from the mothership, you are a jellyfish with no lips"/ I said listen shortstuff/ I'll skip my moon rock across your puddle dive/ I'll kiss your punches with my nose/ I bet you smell like butterfly/ but I bet you dream cocoon/ and I bet you never say the word 'fuck'/ but we all know you do/ My heart is a runway/ I've been staring at this sky since my love took off/ Will you be my friend?/ Will you poem me a porchswing?/

[MusicjunkieTrinity]

She is beautiful ^_^ -3

[MamaJen333]

My favorite one and the setting is so very beautiful and appropriate. THANK YOU!

So. Very. Gifted.

[mfmftw]

"Before you become my friend, road trip with my rubble."

[sunsicle1]

This is great. I'm loving it. I clicked the link to this because I was particularly interested in the title, though. Have you read the novel Ishmael? I had to read it for an assignment in school, and there was a jellyfish story. Although I thought the book was a bit boring, it was very influential to the way I see the world, just as your poetry has. :)

[SchrodingersPet]

It's soo good, it's overwhelming.

[TREEHUGGINSUCKER]

Andrea you are just a wonder penetrating person.

[ees04003]

I just love all the words.

[YarblesYarblesYarble]

Her voice just adds a great effect to the already amazing words=)

[mariahmay22]

Amazing.

[blondathartnhead]

"None of us are pretty but our ugly has an alibi" wow.

[meggiee2014]

all i want to do is run up and hug her and kiss her for reaching out and connecting to someone like that. be it only one person she's connecting to, and i know as well as i know my own self it's more, she's got that way with words. :))

P.s. im not lesbian. i just have a lot of love and respect for this girl.

[nwsafreshman]

Truly breathtaking.

[reallyreallyprofound]

I just. I can't. Thank you.

[stayology]

i'll kiss your punches with my nose

[stayology]

teach me how the candle wax says thank you to the flame

[Anarchisticdandelion]

@vhsDuxbury: does it matter?

[vhsDuxbury]

@Anarchisticdandelion haha fairplay. is abit weird though

[Anarchisticdandelion]

@vhsDuxbury maybe only cause you don't see it everyday? idk. :)

[vhsDuxbury]

is that a man or a woman?

[megdesrochers]

@vhsDuxbury can I have a push on the swing?

[feliciaisfetch]

@megdesrochers Amazing reference.

[megdesrochers]

@feliciaisfetch :)

[pooppoo]

oh dear. that was beautiful.

[Ilovealex33]

"Wonder if the wrecking ball was trying to run its fingers

soft across the bricks

but its head was just too heavy?"

I liked that part a lot. I don't know if what I think of the meaning is really the meaning but I love it. I never meant to hurt him with my love but I did. I guess I just loved so much :/.

[jacolomion]

I love every inch of her mindaltering words!

[intheemaking]

These poems are my birthmarks.

[jasperandcloud]

I want to like it but i dont understand it

[BenIGreen]

@jasperandcloud If you haven't already, listen to her other poems. Then come back to this one.

[SammieRosado]

Why can't I stop listening to this??

Andrea Gibson, you're AMAZING! <3

[John9450]

My friend put some quotes from this on facebook, and I made a joke, and she went "hahahaha" and linked me here, and now I see. Awesome poetry!

[Padooshka]

@666MultiAnon ignorant.

[Bonapartess]

Oh my God, this is like explosive concentrated sex it's so hot. I LOVE people who take language and wield it with such dexterity and deliciousness.

[michelleyy13]

holy. shit.

[jacolomion]

She is amazing!!!! <3<3<3

[snookyeauhh]

scribd. com/doc/28212168/ Jellyfish-by-Andrea-Gibson

[Loveismyguardian]

I dont understand. but i want to.

[GamingIsFTW]

WHAT!

[themeryljane]

Tell me my coal mind will never collapse on my heart.

oh dear goodness, andrea gibson. ahhh.

[KovuLovesHer]

Fucking Beautiful

[geeroo9]

my goodness... it has been my pleasure to even listen to this.

penetrating words (:

[calman111]

i wish i had her mind, i wish i cud think of the stuff she does

[Academikorg]

I'm pretty sure that somewhere, easily accessible, on the surface of her brain, Andrea Gibson has the nuclear codes to all of our hearts. The only thing holding you, the listener, back from sanguine explosion is the number of locks you've placed on yours - but don't worry, she'll keep writing until she gets those too.

[setbro]

Such a dense poem in that it's so full! There's no way to catch it all in one listen

[blownaFUSE]

Women who speak with eloquence (or of any gender) are such a turn on.

[SmerCrew4994Pt]

So beautiful. The poem, the scenery, the tone, beautiful.

[theatricalamity]

she carves me out and beauty trickles in.

[Ca2roline]

When John Stuart Mill suffered from a nervous breakdown and depression, he found solace in reading poetry.

A while ago I would have laughed at the idea of poetry helping me, but since discovering Andrea Gibson's work, I understand.

[Crackiswizzack]

Amazing writer, I do slam poetry, and I have nothing but respect, amazing elaborate metaphours. Check out some of my work on my page.

[sweetjelly11]

so brilliant. thank you andrea for every one of your words!

[Londonbutterflyswing]

beautiful

[mrspettit15]

love it...

[RHOddball]

This is amazingly beautiful ... every last aspect of it.

[EmoSide5]

i almost cried to this.

[DeepRedBlue]

Ah the way she says 'my body is a mason jar'

[setbro]

This is so perfect.

[MetalxCore93]

"...Wonder if the Levy broke a promise?"

<3 genius

[StrangeLittlePoet123]

fucking goregeous...

[BraxtonLee18]

Not only does this poem hit close to home... All her poems hit really close to me... I dont see how i am still here....

<3 Braxton

[XxARTMASONxX]

the sound of her voice reminds me of Miles Hodges

[2smallfishes]

adorablest of adorable. i adore andrea with all my soul. :)

[SlightlyInsane4u]

"A doctor once told me I feel too much. I said so does God. That's why you can see the Grand Canyon from the moon."

Wow. She. Is. Amazing.

[HHH1284]

@SlightlyInsane4u what is the meaning of that qoute

ive been trying to figure it out

[DollfaceErin]

I FUCKING LOVE THIS! Ahh.. So beautiful! I <3 Her and Katie! Amazing Poets!

[WoodlandAsh]

amazing

[JAReed910]

does anyone know where i can find the words to this? i've looked on her website but couldn;t find it.

[DollfaceErin]

Have you found it? I would really love the words as well.. and have also looked EVERYWHERE.

[JAReed910]

nope. the only stuff is on her website.

[Pokedots]

I see a lot of Anis Mojgani in her.

[jonwattsmusic]

wow. this is just beautiful.

[alliestop]

She is amazing. <3

I love the video.

[marceabrown]

I am constantly amazed

[TheSmash15]

her words are love...

the birds chirping in the background just add to the beauty of the poem.

[melissabrianne]

By the way, you can totally see her growth from poem to poem. :)

[melissabrianne]

This is how I write - I walk around somewhere that is so inspirational. :) I am so glad she is in the elements. I love her anywhere, though.

[Neesie267]

I love it! So I wonder exactly where she was.....

[lookitschippy]

and again, she amazes me.

[preciousflight]

Breathless and speechless - every single line and metaphor is awesome.

[nommable]

Beautiful video, beautiful poem. Everything about it makes me want to write about love.

[technicolor444]

love this. amazing poetry as always, with an awesome new way of relaying it to the world.

[clockworkparadox]

This is definitely about Shira, SO GOOD!

[xaznhottiesx]

who is shira?

[GwynnShadow]

Shira Erlichman :) It was the first thing I thought when I heard it, too.

[clockworkparadox]

Shira Erlichman, fellow Slammer.

[ft08tv]

you're both brilliant. and why is it andrea's never that calm or philosophical when camping with me?

[tarapaints]

BEAUTIFUL video. I want to be there

[dynamicdaniellelove]

love*

[dynamicdaniellelove]

That was really very good. :)

I lvoe Andrea