Pole Dancing to Gospel Hymns Quotes

“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 new born river
that has to run through the center of our hearts
to find its way home.”
― Andrea Gibson, Pole Dancing to Gospel Hymns

“Cause I don't wanna be a witness to this life,
I want to be charged and convicted,
ear lifted to her song like a bouquet of yes
because my heart is a parachute that has never opened in time
and I wanna fuck up that pattern,
leave a hole where the cold comes in and fill it every day with her sun,
'cause anyone who has ever sat in lotus for more than a few seconds
knows it takes a hell of a lot more muscle to stay than to go”
― Andrea Gibson, Pole Dancing to Gospel Hymns

“You are a mystery I promise I will never try to solve.”
― Andrea Gibson, Pole Dancing to Gospel Hymns

“Right now there’s a man on the street outside my door
with outstretched hands full of heartbeats no one can hear.
He has cheeks like torn sheet music
every tear-broken crescendo falling on deaf ears.
At his side there’s a boy with eyes like an anthem
no one stands up for.”
― Andrea Gibson, Pole Dancing to Gospel Hymns

“Hey, are you a boy or a — never mind, can I have a push on the swing?” And some day, y’all, when we grow up, it’s all gonna be that simple.”
― Andrea Gibson, Pole Dancing to Gospel Hymns

“I thought, "The flowers, save the flowers..."

I never thought for a second
we wouldn't save the people”
― Andrea Gibson, Pole Dancing to Gospel Hymns

“When your heart is broken you plant seeds in the cracks
and you pray 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.”
― Andrea Gibson, Pole Dancing to Gospel Hymns

“I remember the way love
used to glow on my skin
before he made his way in
now every touch feels like a sin”
― Andrea Gibson, Pole Dancing to Gospel Hymns

“feelings were always smarter things than thoughts.”
― Andrea Gibson, Pole Dancing to Gospel Hymns

“We have cried so hard our tears have left scars on our cheekbones”
― Andrea Gibson, Pole Dancing to Gospel Hymns

“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.”
― Andrea Gibson, Pole Dancing to Gospel Hymns

“Because anyone who has ever sat in lotus for more than a few seconds knows it takes a hell of a lot more muscle to stay then to go.”
― Andrea Gibson, Pole Dancing to Gospel Hymns

“I wish you were here.
Autumn is the hardest season.
The leaves are all falling
and they’re falling like they’re falling in love with the ground
and the trees are naked and lonely.
I keep trying to tell them
new leaves will come around in the spring,
but you can’t tell trees those things,
they’re like me,
they just stand there
and don’t listen.

—Andrea Gibson, from “Photograph,” Pole Dancing To Gospel Hymns (Write Bloody Publishing, 2008)”
― Andrea Gibson, Pole Dancing to Gospel Hymns

“forests may be gorgeous

but there’s nothing more alive

than a tree that grows in a cemetery”
― Andrea Gibson, Pole Dancing to Gospel Hymns

“Do you know they’ve found landmines

in broken women’s souls?”
― Andrea Gibson, Pole Dancing to Gospel Hymns

“Storms are born

from the same sky we write hymns to when the sun shines.”
― Andrea Gibson, Pole Dancing to Gospel Hymns

“The present is far from gift-wrapped.”
― Andrea Gibson, Pole Dancing to Gospel Hymns

“I think of happy when I think of you.”
― Andrea Gibson, Pole Dancing to Gospel Hymns

“And every memory of you is a halt,

a clot where all my blood-rushing veins just stop,

and most days I can’t remember how to bleed.”
― Andrea Gibson, Pole Dancing to Gospel Hymns

“feeling holy as Mary

beneath the hands of a one-night stand

who’s calling somebody else’s name.”
― Andrea Gibson, Pole Dancing to Gospel Hymns

“What gods do you believe in?

I’ll build you a temple of mirrors so you can see them.”
― Andrea Gibson, Pole Dancing to Gospel Hymns

“There are things we know by heart.

And things we don’t.”
― Andrea Gibson, Pole Dancing to Gospel Hymns

“I have been painting the night sky upon the inside of doorframes

so only moonshine will fall on your head in the earthquake.”
― Andrea Gibson, Pole Dancing to Gospel Hymns

“Bliss is the moments you're with me / when you're gone my life hurts like hell / but I'll do anything to me happy even if it means setting you free to be with someone else”
― Andrea Gibson, Pole Dancing to Gospel Hymns

“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.”
― Andrea Gibson, Pole Dancing to Gospel Hymns

“So this is for the day we’ll quit or jobs

and work for something real.”
― Andrea Gibson, Pole Dancing to Gospel Hymns

“We’ve been hundreds of years

measuring the size of their hearts

by the size of our fists,”
― Andrea Gibson, Pole Dancing to Gospel Hymns

“I’ve been wrapping one night stands

around my body like wedding bands

but none of them fit in the morning,”
― Andrea Gibson, Pole Dancing to Gospel Hymns

“When your heart is broken you plant seeds in the cracks

and you pray 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.

 ”
― Andrea Gibson, Pole Dancing to Gospel Hymns

“She's heard stories of Vietnam vets
who can still feel the tingling of their amputated limbs.
She's wondering how many women are walking around this world
feeling the tingling of their amputated wings,
remembering what it was like to fly, to sing.”
― Andrea Gibson, Pole Dancing to Gospel Hymns