In this episode, Kate shares a haunting spoken word poem titled The Gaza Strip Is the Length of My Morning Walk, reflecting on the dissonance between curated Canadian comfort and the devastation in Gaza.

Walking through Yorkville’s lilacs, luxury bakeries, and quiet parks, the poet draws a devastating parallel between three kilometers of peace and the same stretch of land where children dig through rubble with their hands.

This piece explores themes of privilege, grief, complicity, and the cost of safety in a world where others are starving, silenced, and bombed. It’s a poem about bearing witness, about how air quality warnings and almond butter aisles can feel like betrayal.

In this episode, Kate shares Soft Cage, a raw and lyrical meditation on how trauma lives in the body. Through somatic imagery, memory without words, and the quiet terror of dissociation, she explores what it means to survive pelvic trauma—and what it costs to stay. This piece holds space for chronic pain, CPTSD, and the moments when remembering feels as dangerous as forgetting. For anyone learning how to reclaim a body that’s kept score for too long.

Copyright ©2025 Kate Earley

Music: Forgotten Dreams by Samyula

Episode Art: Kate Earley

Written May 22, 2025

In this raw and unflinching spoken word poem, Kate explores the rupture that occurs when therapists speak the language of trauma-informed care—but fail to embody it. The Letters Beside Your Name holds space for survivors who have been retraumatized by silence, by absence, and by clinicians who disappear just when attachment becomes real.

This episode confronts the gap between theory and presence, between credentials and compassion. It’s about the cost of waiting, the grief of reenacted abandonment, and the sacredness of trust in therapy.

If you’ve ever felt too much, too loud, or too real for the person who promised to hold you—this is for you.

Copyright ©2025 Kate Earley

Music: Dietro Casa by Ludovico Einaudi

Written: May 18, 2025

What happens when you wake up mid-scene in a life you don’t fully recognize—and are expected to perform like you do? In Half Drawn Poem, Kate Earley gives voice to the strange choreography of dissociation: the small smile, the polite laugh, the way you speak clearly even when you don’t know where you are. It’s about the girl inside who never left—just curled up, waiting for the floor to dry.

With evocative imagery and a minimalist soundscape underscored by Max Richter, this spoken word poem captures the quiet ache of fragmentation, the survival of silence, and the weight of pretending you remember the walls.

Copyright ©2025 Kate Earley

Music: Written on the Sky by Max Richter

Written: May 13, 2025

In this episode, Kate shares The Season of Almost—a spoken word poem that weaves together trauma recovery, dissociation, and the quiet return to the body through nature and stillness. Set in a forest clearing where winter begins to thaw, the piece explores themes of belonging, sensory grounding, and the longing for gentle connection.

This is a poem for anyone suspended in the in-between. For those who survived, and are still learning how to stay.

Copyright ©2025 Kate Earley

Written: May 13, 2025

Music: L’s Lullaby by Lucas King

What does it cost to be wanted? In this raw and lyrical spoken word poem, Kate Earley unpacks the quiet violence of being “palatable”—the pressure to shrink, sweeten, and shape oneself into something desirable at the expense of authenticity. The Art of Being Palatable explores hunger, shame, femininity, and the quiet grief of learning to be lovable by disappearing. A must-listen for survivors, artists, and anyone unraveling the ways we are taught to perform instead of live.

Copyright ©2025 Kate Earley

Music: I love you, I’m sorry (Gracie Abrams) by Minnz Piano

Art: Haenuli

In this raw and furious spoken word poem, Only Palatable When Starving, Kate explores the devastating reality of eating disorder recovery that is only accepted when it stays silent and small. After years of starvation, she finally finds her voice — only to be punished for it by the very clinician who once promised to stay.

This piece rages against the betrayal of recovery spaces that demand compliance instead of true healing, and names the painful truth: that for many survivors, being “too alive” is still seen as a threat.

Through powerful imagery of wild gardens, shattered promises, and survival, Kate reminds us that real recovery is messy, untamable, and sacred.

Copyright ©2025 Kate Earley

Music: Solas by Gibran Alcocer

Written: April 25, 2025

In this haunting and lyrical spoken word piece, Anorexia Mirabilis, Kate explores the lasting scars of emotional neglect, trauma, and the deep-rooted shame of needing. Drawing from the history of canonized self-denial, she gives voice to the parts of herself that learned to equate hunger with holiness and silence with safety.

With visceral imagery and raw vulnerability, this poem speaks to survivors, neurodivergent listeners, and anyone who has ever been made to feel like needing was a burden.

Themes: emotional neglect, religious trauma, eating disorders, childhood abuse, neurodivergence, self-worth, shame, survival, spoken word poetry.

If you’ve ever struggled to ask for what you need—or to believe you’re allowed to need at all—this episode is for you.

Copyright ©2025 Kate Earley

Music: Je te laisserai des mots by Micha Philipp

In this poignant episode, we present “Requiem for a Body,” a raw and visceral spoken word poem that delves into the arduous journey of reclaiming a body ravaged by years of restriction and starvation. The piece explores the intricate intersections of trauma, eating disorders, and survival, capturing the paradox of recovery—how nourishment, after prolonged deprivation, can evoke sensations of both resurrection and agony.

For those who have used hunger as a language when words failed, and for those who understand the profound weight of being seen yet unseen, this poem resonates deeply. It speaks to the silent struggles and the complex path toward healing.

Key Themes:

• Eating Disorders and Recovery: Exploring the complex journey of healing from eating disorders, acknowledging the physical and emotional challenges involved.

• Trauma and Survival: Examining how traumatic experiences intertwine with eating behaviors and the survival mechanisms individuals develop.

• The Paradox of Nourishment: Understanding the conflicting emotions associated with reintroducing nourishment after prolonged restriction.

This episode offers a space for reflection and connection, inviting listeners to engage with the nuanced experiences of those affected by eating disorders and trauma. Join us as we navigate the delicate balance between suffering and healing, and the journey toward reclaiming one’s body and self.

Content Warning: This episode contains discussions of eating disorders and trauma, which may be triggering for some listeners. Please listen with care.

Note: This episode includes personal narratives and themes that may be sensitive for some audiences.

Copyright © 2025 Kate Earley

Music: Sleep Lotus by Joep Beving

Art: HaeNuLi

In this opening episode of Spoken Season 8, titled Hunger Isn’t Holy, poet and nurse practitioner Kate Earley introduces a new season centered on the lived experience of eating disorders—beyond the stereotypes, beyond the numbers, beyond the aesthetics.

With raw honesty and lyrical precision, Kate explores how disordered eating can become a language—especially for those whose pain was never translated, whose needs were silenced, and whose hunger was treated as something shameful. This season holds space for the complexities of recovery, body memory, trauma, and the quiet courage it takes to want something soft.

These are not polished recovery stories. They are survival stories.

Trigger Warning: This season contains themes related to eating disorders, starvation, religious imagery, childhood trauma, and medical neglect. Please listen with care.