Thanks For Being Here - Remembering Poet Andrea Gibson

Kelly Corrigan Wonders

Kelly Corrigan Show

Society & Culture

4.8 • 3.2K Ratings

🗓️ 27 July 2025

⏱️ 7 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This episode is our tribute to poet Andrea Gibson, who passed away recently and left behind some of the most stunning insights about love, illness and what it really means to show up for one another. Kelly shares an excerpt from Andrea's blog regarding being sick—how friends would ask what to bring when they visited and Andrea's partner would say "bring your problems," because being needed was just as important as being cared for. It's such a simple but profound idea: that even when we're struggling, we still want to feel useful, to be more than just someone who needs help. The episode ends with Andrea's gorgeous poem "Love Letter from the Afterlife," which completely reimagines what death might be like—not as leaving but as becoming more present than ever before. It's the kind of writing that stops you in your tracks and makes you think about love and loss in an entirely new way. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	I've ruled out uni because I want to live at home.
0:02.0	I've ruled out uni because I want to earn money.
0:05.0	I've ruled out uni because of my grades.
0:10.0	Study with the Open University and there's no need to rule out anything.
0:13.0	With our respected degrees, you can learn from home and work alongside study.
0:17.0	We're open to all. Plus, you'll have the support of expert tutors. So rethink your
0:23.6	future with the degree you didn't think was possible. The Open University. The future is open.
0:30.0	Hi everyone. Welcome to Thanks for being here, a short weekly pod to remind us of the many
0:35.4	essential and beautiful ways we affect one another. Every Sunday, I'll
0:40.8	read a submission from a listener of Kelly Corrigan Wonders. Could be wedding vows or a bat mitzvah toast,
0:46.4	a eulogy, or retirement speech. We believe this is probably the loveliest way to tap into our
0:52.6	better selves and remember our highest values.
0:56.1	We encourage you to share this podcast each week with one person you love.
1:00.5	Maybe someone you miss and need to bring closer,
1:03.3	someone you want to feel your appreciation or admiration or both.
1:08.1	This is thanks for being here.
1:23.1	This week's thanks for being here is from all of us at Kelly Corrigan Wonders to a poet named Andrea Gibson. Andrea Gibson was the Poet Laureate of Colorado. They are an author and a performer.
1:30.9	They wrote about love, mental health, and social justice, not to mention panic attacks and poems about the moon.
1:38.0	Before they died, they said, I want my heart to be covered in stretch marks. And Andrea Gibson made an incredible point that I'm always trying to make,
1:47.7	but they made it so much more memorably.
1:51.0	So here is a brief excerpt from a blog post of Andrea Gibson's.
1:58.6	Before they came, friends texted Meg to ask what they could bring.
	...

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