Chapin City Blues

I’m often drawn to the works of Andrea Gibson. Perhaps it’s because I’m a closeted romantic. Although, if I’m a closeted anything it’s not a romantic. Just ask any of my ex-girlfriends and former love interests. It’s just that their ability to sketch emotions, craft pictures with their words has been something I have been striving to do with my own poetry.

I “discovered” them through a friend; she sent me a YouTube video of Gibson reciting their pro-love poem, “I Do.” Here was a person declaring their love for their partner while proclaiming their right to love them. Written in a time where “same-sex marriages” were a taboo subject and the most the lesbian, gay, nonbinary couples could hope for were a civil union in Vermont, “I Do” spoke volumes to me – as odd as it is to say that a mostly-straight, quasi-cisgender male could relate.

As the years went on, I listened and viewed more of Gibson’s work. I collected their words and carried them within my heart. “Maybe I Love” played ad nauseum on YouTube when my relationship ended – and continues to play ad nauseum whenever that specific aloneness creeps in.

Lord of the Butterflies was the first collection I purchased by the poet. I regretted the years of going without their writing on the written page, but my voice could never give their words justice. Within its pages, I discovered something that I always felt was true – Andrea Gibson was willing to fight for love.

For the second poem, I have chosen Andrea Gibson’s poem, “Fight for Love.” Please enjoy.

More Andrea Gibson:

• Lord of the Butterflies
• Take Me With You
• We Will Be Shelter: Poems for Survival
• The Madness Vase
• Pansy
• Pole Dancing to Gospel Hymns
• How Poetry Can Change Your Heart
• Truce (audio recording)
• Hey Galaxy (audio recording)
• When the Bough Breaks (audio recording)
• Flower Boy (audio recording)
• Bullets and Windchimes (audio recording)
• Yellowbird (audio recording)