Remembering Andrea Gibson (1975-2025)

Remembering Andrea Gibson
1975-2025

I know most people try hard
to good and find out too late
they should have been softer
                              from  "The Year of Not Grudges, or Instead of Writing a Furious Text, I Try a Poem"  
                              in You Better Be Lightning

The first week you were gone,
I kept seeing your hand wave goodbye
like a windshield wiper in a flooding car
in the last real moment I believed the hurricane would let me out 
        alive
                               from "Maybe I Need You"
                               in The Madness Vase

My politics aren't my politics
My politics are m y soul
and I'm not going anywhere
without my soul
And that guy's politics aren't his soul.
I don't think souls have
machine gun collections
                              from "MAGA Hat in the Chemo Room" (YouTube)

Before they died, Andrea Gibson left a message to the their fans: “Whenever I leave this world, whether in sixty years from now, I wouldn’t want anyone to say I lost some battle. I’ll be a winner that day.” I wish I can be as strong facing my mortality as they were with theirs.

I was introduce to their work some time ago. I forget by who. I always want to say my friend, Jenn, who I met through LiveJournal a lifetime ago. The first poem I watched them performed was “I Do.” It was recorded at the University of Central Oklahoma. I immediately fell in love, though I could never remember their name, but I always revisited the poem and searched for others.

It wasn’t until “Maybe I Need You,” recorded for Sofar Sounds that I stuck around. At the time, I was in a hell of a place in my life. I had a three-year-old son and my relationship with Jeanna had been over for some time. Yet, their poem brought me some sort of peace. I don’t know what it was that soothed my aching heart, but I vowed that I would buy up all their book and just take them in.

Andrea Gibson’s words became an extension of my heart. They were the words I needed as an adult, but also words that spoke to that forgotten queer adolescent I had been once. Their work became a staple of my gift giving. I think I’ve purchased their work for a few of my friends. And I love sharing their poems with others. Introducing them to people I meet.

There will never be another Andrea Gibson, but the people whose hearts they touched through poetry will continue on. And because of them, I feel, we are all winners.