Andrea Gibson, a poet, activist and subject of the documentary film “Come See Me in the Good Light,” died on Monday following a four-year fight with ovarian cancer.

Andrea Gibson, a celebrated poet and performance artist who through their verse explored gender identity, politics and their battle with terminal cancer, died Monday at age 49.

The poem “How I Became a Poet” dwells for nearly five minutes on Andrea’s youth — “the tiniest kid in my class/hair cut so strange I looked like a third-grade boy/who gets picked on by his first-grade...