It Becomes You: Poems
Description
"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.
Praise for It Becomes You: Poems
“Poems of grace and invention. . . . In Gibson's hands the lyric form becomes enlivened. This is his most generous and assured volume to date.” —The Believer Poetry Award, Editors' Shortlist
“The dry wit of Gibson's poetry crackles. . . . Gibson is a Minneapolis ad man, and whatever he's selling, we're buying.” —Minnesota Monthly, "The Best Books and Music of the Winter"
“Gibson is more than a turner of clever phrases. There is a real tenderness at the heart of his work. . . . Gibson deftly quilts witty observation with moments of lyric intensity.” —Star Tribune
“[Gibson's] poems remind me of Billy Collins or Mark Strand. . . . At their best, they reflect the sharp humor of Auden, who makes tight lines appear effortlessly conversational.” —New Pages
“This third outing might be [Gibson's] best . . . . Gibson's conversational diction and free verse line are nothing if not contemporary, but his willingness to face disappointment connects these poems less to models like Dean Young (addressed in one beautiful homage) than to late Wallace Stevens and early Mark Strand. And the volume, for all its gray tones, resignations, and off-white skies, has consolation aplenty--domestic satisfactions, witty one-liners, and the real beauties of its settings among them.” —Publishers Weekly
“[Gibson is] playful, mysterious, wry, humorous, sad, full bodied and adventurous. Maybe that's enough for one lifetime; yet, Gibson is also master of the soliloquy in poetry, and the dramatic monologue, shrewd with perception. . . . Full-bore language becomes poetry that you surely do not want to miss.” —Washington Independent Review of Books
