Honoring Andrea Gibson

Poet. Interpreter of Human Existence. Gone but Here.

If you don’t know of Andrea Gibson, Google them. They died on Monday after a four year journey with ovarian cancer, surrounded by their wife, their parents, four exes, three dogs, and myriad friends. That vast set of differing witnesses has gotta tell you something.

The former Poet Laureate of Colorado, Andrea interpreted human experience, wielded words, and wove wisdom in the plainest of ways. Profound insight and meaning became available to us all because Andrea just handed it over like a receipt. By which I do NOT mean their work was simple or easy – I mean the opposite. Andrea’s genius was making the complex comprehendible, the etherial visible, and resolving paradoxes into balanced equations. As they began to die they became EVEN more alive. Make sense of that, will you?

Andrea’s poem “Love Letter From the Afterlife” went viral in the hours after they died. Its core concept is “Dying is the Opposite of Leaving.” Watch it here.

These are just a few of the lines I find most exquisite about “Love Letter From the Afterlife”:

• “In my back pocket is a love note with every word you wish you’d said.”

• “All day I listen to the radio of your memories. Yes I know every secret you thought too dark to tell me, and love you more for everything you feared might make me love you less.”

• “One day you will know why I read the poetry of your grief to those waiting to be born, and they are all the more excited.”

Andrea first shared “Love Letter From the Afterlife” with wife Meg a few months ago, when the duo taped a segment for an NBC Chicago show called “It’s OK to Ask Questions,” the purpose of which is to query and learn from LGBTIQ+ trailblazers. It’s a 40 minute feature segment, and it seems like nobody on the set knew the poem was coming. So you get to see Andrea read it aloud for the first time, and see Meg receive it, and see Andrea be overcome at times by their own frankness. Watch the full NBC segment here.

Today, Andrea’s wife Meg carried on with publishing Andrea’s regular newsletter “Things That Don’t Suck.” To connect more with Andrea’s work and life, I encourage you to subscribe to the newsletter, which you can do here.

This piece is another installation in my July theme of “Retreat,” as death is the ultimate retreat from existence, and Andrea seems to have retreated with great intention for how they would nevertheless live while the cancer took over. Join my Zoom call on the theme of “retreat” this Sunday June 20 at 2pm Pacific, where you can share what “retreat” means and has meant to you, while learning from others. (Premium content for paid subscribers - click this link!)

xo

PS/ So far, my other July posts on “Retreat” have included:

• What does it mean to “Retreat”?

• The ache to retreat from the America Republicans are creating

• The unanticipated consequences of retreating from caregiving

• Finding retreat in a place I’ve had for decades but only now appreciate: my back yard