Come See me in the Good Light

It’s strange – when you come to know the work of an artist where it feels as though you might actually know them (we don’t, of course – it just feels that way) – but then you come to the moment where you realize there’s nothing new left of theirs for you to consume – and there never will be.

I’ve written several times about poet Andrea Gibson – talking about them during National Poetry Month and writing up short reviews of their collections and picking one of their books as a First Friday Recommendation. Writing about their death was a difficult one. But at that moment, I knew there was still something new that I had yet to experience. Well, two somethings.

The first was the documentary Come See Me in the Good Light:

I knew about it first from Gibson, who was open early on (as they were with most things in their life) with all of us about what they were going through – with their cancer diagnosis and this film. When they finished and traveled with it, I had considered making a trek to see it because I knew this would likely be the last opportunity I’d have to see them in person. (By then, they had shared with us that their cancer was now labeled incurable.) Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to (which makes me cherish all the times I’ve seen them perform and the instances I’ve been able to interact with them even more).

Thankfully, in April, they announced that AppleTV would be distributing the documentary, which won the Festival Favorite Award at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, and eventually, Nov 14 was listed as the release date. That’s today – the day I’m writing this (though not the date I’m posting it because today’s blog post already went live – plus, I hadn’t intended to write about this). Even knowing Gibson as I did, and knowing their work, I was ready to be blown away (but no pressure to the film makers, of course) – and I hit play.

And then it hit me.

This was it. This would be the last new thing from my favorite poet that I would ever get to consume – for the first time. Much as I wanted to press stop, to leave it as something new of theirs I had yet to experience, I couldn’t. So I watched, and I laughed, and I cried. Yep. I cried. A lot. Not because Gibson had cancer (and had since died) but because they maintained their humor and their beautiful spirit, and they turned their documentary about life with cancer into a love story – the love they have for their partner, the love they have for their fans, and the love they have for life.

Even if you have never heard of Andrea Gibson before, I implore you to watch. (If you’re not sure yet, check out the trailer.) As Sara Bareilles put it in Variety: “Andrea knew that this film was gonna hold a lot of heavy material, but it’s so funny. You watch this film and Andrea is hysterical, hysterically funny, as is Meg. So you’re laughing a lot, and it’s just a joyful, life-affirming film that happens to be about cancer.”

If you were paying attention, you might be asking – what’s the second thing?

My artsy worlds collided when one of my favorite singers (Sara B) found Gibson’s work. In that same Variety article quoted above, she says, “I got introduced to Andrea’s work on Instagram…It was all of those videos they would share, and I was just so moved by their generosity and courage to share something so intimate, and with so much lightness. I think that’s one of Andrea’s superpowers, this ability to hold the dark matter with so much light and real love…There’s a lot of really incredible wisdom in their perspective.”

Sara B eventually met Gibson (saw them perform) and got involved in the film by way of producing. And then got to take it one step further. The team was looking for something to end the film with, to roll with the credits. Cut to – Sara B taking snippets of Gibson’s unfinished work and, in collaboration with Brandi Carlile, creating a love song out of it. (Yep, she finally wrote someone a love song – and who better than for Gibson?) Never in my life did I expect to experience a collaboration between Gibson and Sara B – but here we are:

Gibson still lives on in the work of their partner, Megan Falley, who has been just as open and generous with her own experience and grief after Gibson’s passing, including this writing about having to grieve her partner alongside Gibson’s other love of their life, their dog Squash (of A Letter to my Dog fame), which she wrote about in a post called “Grieving Andrea with the One Who Loved Them Longest.” I highly recommend listening to the poem and then reading the post.

It is hard to think there will never be another new poem to experience for the first time – but Gibson gave so much in their too-short life, and there’s much to return to.