Celebrating National Poetry Month with Andrea Deeken

Poetry Medicine for the Soul, a podcast hosted by John Gillespie, invites poets to share and examine poetry. While the 2025 National Poetry Month is over, Poetry Medicine for the Soul is still celebrating. Episode 20 features Andrea Deeken reading two poems: "Portrait as Bougainvillea Gone Derelict Over Chain Link" by Karen Rigby, and "We Are of a Tribe" by  Alberto Ríos. Andrea and John then explore the question: What does National Poetry Month mean to you?   Andrea Deeken (she/they) is the author of the chapbook, Mother Kingdom, winner of the 2021 Slapering Hol Press Chapbook Competition and 2022 International Book Awards finalist. Her writing has appeared or is forthcoming in a variety of journals including Beltway Poetry Quarterly, Beyond Queer Words, The Blue Mountain Review, erbacce Journal UK, Ran Off With the Star Bassoon, and Spoon River Poetry Review, among others. A former book editor, she has worked for Multnomah County Library for nearly two decades. She lives in Portland, Oregon with her family. Learn more about Andrea at 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: [email protected]