Poetry Medicine for the Soul is a podcast inviting poets to share, explore, and celebrate poetry, hosted by John Gillespie. This National Poetry Month 2026 bonus episode features Andrea Deeken reading her poem “On Kindness."

Andrea Deeken (she/they) is the author of Mother Kingdom, winner of the 2021 Slapering Hol Press Chapbook Prize. Her writing has appeared in a variety of journals including The Blue Mountain Review, Mom Egg Review, Ran Off With the Star Bassoon, Spoon River Poetry Review, and elsewhere. A 2025 Regional Arts & Culture Council grant recipient, Deeken is the cofounder of Lesbian Poets Society, an inclusive podcast about queerness and creativity, currently in production. She lives in Portland, Oregon with her family.

Find Andrea and her fellow cohost Darla Himeles online (Instagram) @lesbian.poets.society or send them an email at lesbian.poets.society@gmail.com.

Learn more about Andrea at www.andreadeeken.com.

This podcast is hosted and produced by John Gillespie. Check out our website for more episodes: https://poetry-medicine-for-the-soul.simplecast.com/

Listen and subscribe to Poetry Medicine for the Soul in Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Get in touch with us at: info@poetrymedicineforthesoul.com

Poetry Medicine for the Soul is a podcast inviting poets to share, explore, and celebrate poetry, hosted by John Gillespie. This National Poetry Month 2026 bonus episode features Karren LaLonde Alenier reading her poem "how we hold on" from her latest book by the same name, how we hold on, from Broadstone Books.

Karren Lalonde Alenier is a poet, librettist and literary Leader She is editor of From the Belly: Poets Respond to Gertrude Stein's Tender Buttons and author of eight collections of poetry. Looking for Divine Transportation was 2002 winner of the Towson University Prize for literature. The Anima of Paul Bowles was 2016 top staff pick at Boston’s Grolier Books. Her eighth collection how we hold on launched spring 2021. She also authored The Steiny Road to Operadom: The Making of American Operas, a book that includes her essays and opera reviews first published in Scene4 Magazine.

Her opera with William Banfield, Gertrude Stein Invents a Jump Early On, premiered 2005 by Encompass New Opera Theater under direction of Nancy Rhodes. It was favorably reviewed by Anthony Tommasini in The New York Times.

Karren promotes other people's poetry with publication and public programs through The Word Works.

Learn more at alenier.com.

This podcast is hosted and produced by John Gillespie. Check out our website for more episodes: https://poetry-medicine-for-the-soul.simplecast.com/

Listen and subscribe to Poetry Medicine for the Soul in Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Get in touch with us at: info@poetrymedicineforthesoul.com

Poetry Medicine for the Soul is a podcast inviting poets to share, explore, and celebrate poetry, hosted by John Gillespie. This National Poetry Month 2026 bonus episode features Brooke Morgan reading "Ragged Island" by Edna St. Vincent Millay.

This podcast is hosted and produced by John Gillespie. Check out our website for more episodes: https://poetry-medicine-for-the-soul.simplecast.com/

Listen and subscribe to Poetry Medicine for the Soul in Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Get in touch with us at: info@poetrymedicineforthesoul.com