ANDREA GIBSON on the Blessings of the Wound [HOMAGE] /370

Jul 22, 2025

In this heartfelt conversation, celebrated spoken word poet Andrea Gibson reflects on healing, connection, and the beauty of life. They confront societal fears of disconnection and mortality, emphasizing that true healing begins within ourselves and our communities. Andrea shares their transformative journey through illness, inviting listeners to explore identity and the fluidity of gender. They inspire us to embrace presence, appreciate the richness of existence, and view death as a continuation of love in those we cherish. Their words resonate with grace and introspection.

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ANECDOTE

Connection Eases Anxiety

Andrea Gibson's anxiety dissolved upon their cancer diagnosis due to a newfound sense of universal connection.
They described feeling linked hand-to-hand like a "paper doll string of life" connecting everyone globally.

INSIGHT

Grief Underlies Fear and Healing

Gibson realized that grief often underpins fear and anxiety, rooted in early trauma and disconnection.
Healing means returning to oneself and others, embracing life's uncontrollable flow rather than resisting it.

ADVICE

Claim Autonomy Over Diagnosis

Take ownership of your health decisions by actively engaging with medical advice rather than passively following it.
Center choices around personal joy, spiritual practice, and sensible options to maintain autonomy.

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We are rebroadcasting our extended conversation with Andrea Gibson as we honor their death on July 14th, 2025. The conversation, originally aired In September of 2023, was entitled “The Blessings of the Wound.”

For so many of us who have been touched by Andrea’s work, their death is a deep wound, one that will stretch and expand our hearts in accordance with its depth. In the episode, Andrea contemplates the deeply rooted societal fears of disconnection and of death. Facing fear, confusion, and loss head on, Andrea reminds us that healing is a return to the self, a return to community.

Through poem and spirituality, Andrea draws us to see the beauty in being alive in this particular life, in our particular bodies, at this particular time. Their presence and attention is life-giving. As Andrea shares their journey connecting to the eternal, genderless “We,” they invite listeners to contemplate their identities beyond this life alone. As we let the need to know fall away, what miracles might reveal themselves to us?

While you listen to this episode, we invite you to consider their words in the poem “Love Letter from the Afterlife.” Andrea writes, “ I know that to be human is to be farsighted. But feel me now, walking the chambers of your heart, pressing my palms to the soft walls of your living. Why did no one tell us that to die is to be reincarnated in those we love while they are still alive?” Learn more at https://forthewild.world/listen/andrea-gibson-on-the-blessings-of-the-wound-homage

As tribute to Andrea, we will be offering a free download of our zine, Grief, in our Friday, July 24th newsletter. The digital zine includes practice, ritual, and an extended reading of Andrea’s conversation with For The Wild. Sign up for the newsletter on our website.

Credits

Music by Katie Gray, John Carrol Kirby (Patience Records), and Kesia Negata.

This episode was created by Ayana Young, Erica Ekrem, Julia Jackson, and José Alejandro Rivera with special thanks to Victoria Pham for the July 22, 2025 version

Cover art by William Baxter Closson, titled "Night Moths"

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