The emotional eye of the lyric and seeding this world with the things we need: a reading with Arisa White

Poetry Medicine for the Soul is a podcast inviting poets to share, explore, and celebrate poetry, hosted by John Gillespie. This episode features poet and Acadia National Park trail crew member and Poet Laureate, Christian Barter. Christian reads his poems "McVie," "Acadia," "To Autumn," "Reading Myself," and "Errand." Arisa White is an associate professor of English and Creative Writing at Colby College. She is the author of Who’s Your Daddy, co-editor of Home Is Where You Queer Your Heart, and co-author of Biddy Mason Speaks Up, the second book in the Fighting for Justice Series for young readers. Post Pardon: The Opera marked Arisa’s debut as a librettist, and the libretto is forthcoming from Ecstatic Motion Press in 2026.  Her poetry is widely published, and her collections have been nominated for both the NAACP (N-double-A-C-P) Image Award and the Lambda Literary Award. She has also won the Per Diem Poetry Prize, the Maine Literary Award, the Nautilus Book Award, an Independent Publisher Book Award, the Golden Crown Literary Award, and the Airlie Press Prize. The poem installation, look after your heart, is permanently displayed at the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens. She is a Cave Canem fellow and serves on the Community Advisory Board for Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance. Learn more at arisawhite.com This podcast is hosted and produced by John Gillespie. Check out our website or Simplecast podcast feed for more episodes. Listen and subscribe to Poetry Medicine for the Soul in Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Learn more and get in touch: poetrymedicineforthesoul.com