Andrea Gibson:
(born 13 August 1975).
American poet and activist from Calais, Maine, who has lived in Boulder, Colorado, since 1999.
Gibson’s poetry focuses on gender norms, politics, social justice and LGBTQ issues.
Come love, make me better than I was. Come teach me a kinder way to say my own name.
The leaves are all falling, and they are falling like they are falling in love on the ground.
It’s a metaphor:
The leaves falling from a tree are likened to ‘falling in love’—soft, inevitable, and tender—ending up on the ground like a kind of romantic “landing.”
Origin:
This exact line is ‘commonly attributed to poet Andrea Gibson’, and it appears in multiple places online tied to their work.
Author:
Andrea Gibson is the most likely attribution—but because this is a ‘single sentence’ that circulates across quotes websites, I can’t guarantee it’s 100% verbatim from their published text without checking a specific book/page.
🌿 Meaning (what the imagery is doing):
– “The leaves are all falling”:
Creates a clear seasonal scene (autumn) and a feeling of transition.
– “and they are falling like…”:
Signals a comparison—something ordinary is being reframed.
– “they are falling like they are falling in love”:
Turns a natural process into a romantic one:
– falling can be ‘beautiful’
– it can be ‘uncontrolled / inevitable’
– it can be ‘joyful even though it ends (seasonally)’
– “on the ground”:
The “landing” mirrors how love “lands” or where it settles—ground becomes a place of arrival, not just decay.
📌 Origin / attribution:
– Most common attribution online:
Andrea Gibson
– Why it’s hard to be 100% certain from just the sentence:
Quote snippets online are often:
– slightly paraphrased,
– re-published without page-level citation,
– or taken from live readings rather than a printed collection.
