[Poetry Friday] “Good Light” by Andrea Gibson

Fats here.

Last year, in June, I shared poems from Andrea Gibson’s poetry collection entitled, “Take Me With You.” A few weeks ago, I came across their latest latest anthology, “Lord of the Butterflies.” The verses you’ll find below are my favorite parts in their poem, “Good Light.” If you wish to listen to the whole poem, I included a video Andrea Gibson performing “Good Light,” courtesy of Button Poetry. Enjoy!

Poetry Friday round-up is hosted this week by Karen Edmisten!

Background image above courtesy of City Pages.

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Good Light

My yes never fit into the no of this world.
I was just a little girl trying to get rid of the just and the little,
got rid of the girl instead.

Got rid of my yes trying to make a no so big
it could go back in time, swallow everything that happened
that should not have happened.

And that’s how I lived. That’s how I’d been living.
Decades of no no no no no no no no no.

---

But then I met you

and I started feeling myself open,
started feeling my yes coming back,

the reverse of being haunted,
like taking a deep breath

and pulling the fog off the glass.
My love, my yes

do you know how many times a day
my gratitude frames your autograph?

Come see me in the good light.

Come tender as the trees
forgiving the books
for asking it to be made.

Come with all your beauty leaving evidence behind,
your fingerprints all over the thing that changed my mind,
that made me better than I was.

---

I know how much the pain of this world weighs
but I can still tip the scales in light’s direction

whenever I have your name on my tongue.
Whenever you say love is a ladder

to our highest selves, I say, May our falling
be the most beautiful climb.

In the good light, and in the lightning strike,
come become beside me

till I find your first silver hair in our tub.
Till I find your last silver hair in our tub.