Andrea Gibson, celebrated poet, dies at 49

Andrea Gibson, a celebrated poet, died after a 4-year battle with terminal ovarian cancer. She was 49.

Megan Falley, Gibson’s wife, announced the poet’s death on social media. The Associated Press reported that Gibson and Falley are featured in a documentary titled “Come See Me in the Good Light,” which follows the couple’s loving relationship as Gibson fights cancer. The program is scheduled to air this fall on Apple TV+.

The AP obtained a statement Monday regarding Gibson’s death that read in part “Andrea Gibson died in their home (in Boulder, Colorado) surrounded by their wife, Meg, four ex-girlfriends, their mother and father, dozens of friends, and their three beloved dogs.”

Who was Andrea Gibson?

The backstory:

Andrea Gibson was born in Maine and relocated to Colorado in the late 1990s, where they served the past two years as the state’s poet laureate, according to the Associated Press. Gibson’s books include “You Better Be Lightning,” “Take Me With You” and “Lord of the Butterflies.”

Citing a 2017 essay published in Out magazine, the AP noted that Gibson recalled coming out at age 20 while studying creative writing at Saint Joseph’s College of Maine.

Gibson identified as genderqueer and wrote that they didn’t feel like a boy or a girl and cited a line of their poetry: “I am happiest on the road/ When I’m not here or there — but in-between.”

Before Gibson died, they authored a poem titled “Love Letter from the Afterlife,” sharing in part “Dying is the opposite of leaving. When I left my body, I did not go away. That portal of light was not a portal to elsewhere, but a portal to here. I am more here than I ever was before,” the AP noted.