Andrea Gibson died on July 14. I admired their poetry, most especially their bravery to accept their mortality after learning of their terminal ovarian cancer. I understand that other people seek strength in the language of battling disease, yet Gibson said, “I will not fight… You tap into the brevity of something, and all of a sudden everything becomes more special.”
Rarely is anyone that honest. Mostly, we move through life as if everything were just fine.
In their poem, “Angels of the Get-Through,” Gibson penned, “‘Fine’ is the suckiest word. It is the opposite of ‘here.'”
I know that “be here now” is not just an Oasis album but can sound trite, especially if you are struggling. Rather than pitching some false, new-age mumbo-jumbo, Gibson caught hold of the deep truth that attentiveness to the moment meant being brave and vulnerable: “Every good heart has lost its roof. Let the walls collapse at your feet, scream, ‘timber,’ when they ask how you are.”
While shouting timber most commonly refers to the felling of trees, what does it mean in reference to the heart?
Raised in a religiously conservative household, Gibson’s poetry was peppered with biblical allusions. The “timber” in “Angels of the Get-Through” reminds me of the line in an old spiritual, “The walls came tumblin’ down,” based on a battle between the Israelites and their enemies in the Book of Joshua. I believe the real spiritual struggle is internal: how do we live knowing that we will die? That all lives will be cut down?
Fearing loss, we might lose the chance to fall in love with life.
Gibson performed spoken-word poetry, despite their chronic stage fright. They overcame the fear and panic in order to share their gift. In a religious context, I might say they let their light shine, but let’s go with Gibson’s metaphor: timber! Let fears fall away that something else might grow instead, something like awe, beauty, or love.
Poet Andrea Gibson, one of the subjects of the documentary film “Come See Me in the Good Light,” poses at the premiere of the film during the Sundance Film Festival on Jan. 25, 2025, in Park City, Utah. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, File)
Andrew Taylor-Troutman is the author of the book with Wipf and Stock Publishers titled This Is the Day: A Year of Observing Unofficial Holidays about Ampersands, Bobbleheads, Buttons, Cousins, Hairball Awareness, Humbugs, Serendipity, Star Wars, Teenagers, Tenderness, Walking to School, Yo-Yos, and More. He lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina where he is a student of joy.
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