Author, poet, chapbook-maker, teacher, lover of the spectrums, and quite often a person on a bicycle. New chapbook with Anstruther Press out in 2025!https://bsky.app/profile/kevinspenst.bsky.socialhttps://bsky.app/profile/kevinspenst.bsky.social/post/3lzzluc5n722pThis asynchronous online poetry course is my pride and joy. I wrote it through the pandemic & it brings together over a decade of studying, teaching, & living through poetry: https://sfu.ca/continuing-studies/courses/twsa/poetry-2.html There's a little under a week for you to sign up. @pancouver.bsky.social @anvilpress.bsky.social30 Sep 2025 03:36 +0000at://did:plc:rel24xeobfmxv3btw62s5v4k/app.bsky.feed.post/3lzzluc5n722phttps://bsky.app/profile/kevinspenst.bsky.social/post/3lmrxo44r2s2uA Center You must hold your quiet center, where you do what only you can do. If others call you a maniac or a fool, just let them wag their tongues. If some praise your perseverance, don't feel too happy about it— only solitude is a lasting friend. You must hold your distant center. [..] Ha Jin14 Apr 2025 16:18 +0000at://did:plc:rel24xeobfmxv3btw62s5v4k/app.bsky.feed.post/3lmrxo44r2s2uhttps://bsky.app/profile/kevinspenst.bsky.social/post/3lmrxl5palk2uWoot-woot! Finding a venue for a volunteer-run reading series (with almost no funding) is a big deal! This is cause to celebrate and by celebrate, I mean please come out and join us for the May 11th reading! [contains quote post or other embedded content]14 Apr 2025 16:17 +0000at://did:plc:rel24xeobfmxv3btw62s5v4k/app.bsky.feed.post/3lmrxl5palk2uhttps://bsky.app/profile/kevinspenst.bsky.social/post/3ll2zapbf7c2s"What a miracle it is, each time a poem takes place" - Jorie Graham https://www.joriegraham.com/prose_graham_ploughshares (Old but new to me :)23 Mar 2025 19:50 +0000at://did:plc:rel24xeobfmxv3btw62s5v4k/app.bsky.feed.post/3ll2zapbf7c2shttps://bsky.app/profile/kevinspenst.bsky.social/post/3lko44c7dcs2kLook who's on bluesky: (their next reading is May 11th!) [contains quote post or other embedded content]18 Mar 2025 16:37 +0000at://did:plc:rel24xeobfmxv3btw62s5v4k/app.bsky.feed.post/3lko44c7dcs2khttps://bsky.app/profile/kevinspenst.bsky.social/post/3lko3ceglss2lTake your manifest destiny and stuff it up your ________. (all are welcome to join in the anti-imperialist fun!) #NoWayEh #Canadian18 Mar 2025 16:22 +0000at://did:plc:rel24xeobfmxv3btw62s5v4k/app.bsky.feed.post/3lko3ceglss2lhttps://bsky.app/profile/kevinspenst.bsky.social/post/3lkboftkouc2qA Bouquet came out almost a year ago @anvilpress.bsky.social . It's nice to see that the poems are still finding their way to new readers. @sfuenglish.bsky.social [contains quote post or other embedded content]13 Mar 2025 18:00 +0000at://did:plc:rel24xeobfmxv3btw62s5v4k/app.bsky.feed.post/3lkboftkouc2qhttps://bsky.app/profile/kevinspenst.bsky.social/post/3ljb6xpzotc2aDead Poets come to Cross & Crows! Sunday March 9th, 2025 @ 3:00PM - 4:45PM w/ Jen Currin (reading John Ashbery), Arleen Pare (reading Don Domanski), Melanie Siebert (reading Osip Mandelstam) & Ali Blythe (reading Jean Valentine) crossandcrows.com/events (masks are mandatory :) https://crossandcrows.com/events28 Feb 2025 19:58 +0000at://did:plc:rel24xeobfmxv3btw62s5v4k/app.bsky.feed.post/3ljb6xpzotc2ahttps://bsky.app/profile/kevinspenst.bsky.social/post/3ljb6kesgec27It's hard to squeeze someone into a rectangular space, but Nate is great and fits most everywhere: "I believe creating art in a grounded and heart-centred sense of playfulness is a social good." Check their stuff out: www.natenatenainers.com/about https://www.natenatenainers.com/about28 Feb 2025 19:51 +0000at://did:plc:rel24xeobfmxv3btw62s5v4k/app.bsky.feed.post/3ljb6kesgec27https://bsky.app/profile/kevinspenst.bsky.social/post/3liwulxb65s2kThere's so much grief & joy to write about; this time I get to have art on the cover from my good buddy who I've known since junior high in Surrey. Behold the work of Kerry Vaughn Erickson in a photo of two of his paintings in a window (yes, it's a windowful) www.anstrutherpress.com#/windowful-b... https://www.anstrutherpress.com/#/windowful-by-kevin-spenst/24 Feb 2025 17:26 +0000at://did:plc:rel24xeobfmxv3btw62s5v4k/app.bsky.feed.post/3liwulxb65s2khttps://bsky.app/profile/kevinspenst.bsky.social/post/3lip3pwv2vk2mRoses are red. Violets are defiant. Poetry is sweet, And some things will not change no matter who tries to take over, and may Claude McKay, Harryette Mullen and other American poets of brilliance and sensitivity will be taught because they are the bloom of the people. Happy belated Valentine’s Day!21 Feb 2025 15:12 +0000at://did:plc:rel24xeobfmxv3btw62s5v4k/app.bsky.feed.post/3lip3pwv2vk2mhttps://bsky.app/profile/kevinspenst.bsky.social/post/3li5qjaebf225Days are dark but I'm fortunate to have a book by Byung-Chul Han in my hands that reads: “The ultimate purpose of language is praise.” Even through this exceptionally imperfect medium, I'm able to say that your eyes are miracles as you read these words that root you towards some future celebration.14 Feb 2025 17:36 +0000at://did:plc:rel24xeobfmxv3btw62s5v4k/app.bsky.feed.post/3li5qjaebf225https://bsky.app/profile/kevinspenst.bsky.social/post/3lhbyephmzs2iPoetry (and all its ambiguities and imagery) will help us through: [contains quote post or other embedded content]03 Feb 2025 16:42 +0000at://did:plc:rel24xeobfmxv3btw62s5v4k/app.bsky.feed.post/3lhbyephmzs2ihttps://bsky.app/profile/kevinspenst.bsky.social/post/3lhbyal2tv22iDorito Mussolini's stream-of-pompousness: [contains quote post or other embedded content]03 Feb 2025 16:40 +0000at://did:plc:rel24xeobfmxv3btw62s5v4k/app.bsky.feed.post/3lhbyal2tv22ihttps://bsky.app/profile/kevinspenst.bsky.social/post/3lhby2qfzys2iDorito Mussolini's hard to understand because he talks with his mouth full of big macs, broken pacifiers, & BS. Our politicians' job is to try to negotiate & deal with him (keeping this avarice and mendacity in mind for plan Bs), but our job is to tell it like it is (as crazy as it is.)03 Feb 2025 16:37 +0000at://did:plc:rel24xeobfmxv3btw62s5v4k/app.bsky.feed.post/3lhby2qfzys2ihttps://bsky.app/profile/kevinspenst.bsky.social/post/3lh7sg6gkhs2pI pray Dorito Mussolini’s Manifesto Destiny to Make North America One Great Big Mac Attack again gives the inglorious glutton indigestion. #takeoffeh #handsoffmyfellowhosers02 Feb 2025 19:50 +0000at://did:plc:rel24xeobfmxv3btw62s5v4k/app.bsky.feed.post/3lh7sg6gkhs2phttps://bsky.app/profile/kevinspenst.bsky.social/post/3lg6rwvj4cs25Sometimes journal writing is drilling down into the past to get to the place where tears weren’t released. I write about yesterday. I write and write about the past couple of days and suddenly 1/220 Jan 2025 16:44 +0000at://did:plc:rel24xeobfmxv3btw62s5v4k/app.bsky.feed.post/3lg6rwvj4cs25https://bsky.app/profile/kevinspenst.bsky.social/post/3les3o7tcwc2yOne of the first literary events of 2025 that I'm excited to be co-hosting: #DeadPoetsReadingSeries Since this is our first reading in our new home at Harbour Center at SFU downtown, please help us spread the word. @ubcpress.bsky.social @vmiprogram.bsky.social Most importantly: hope you can make it! [contains quote post or other embedded content]02 Jan 2025 22:08 +0000at://did:plc:rel24xeobfmxv3btw62s5v4k/app.bsky.feed.post/3les3o7tcwc2yhttps://bsky.app/profile/kevinspenst.bsky.social/post/3les36t2hfs2yThis photo gets me thinking of January's namesake god: Janus, the two-faced god over doorways. We look ahead through the skewed times into more books that will set us to rights. May all your 2025 reading be glorious! @anvilpress.bsky.social [contains quote post or other embedded content]02 Jan 2025 22:00 +0000at://did:plc:rel24xeobfmxv3btw62s5v4k/app.bsky.feed.post/3les36t2hfs2yhttps://bsky.app/profile/kevinspenst.bsky.social/post/3les2wjuqgs2yNeed a place to submit your chapuscripts? Look no further: "We'll be open for submissions throughout 2025..." [contains quote post or other embedded content]02 Jan 2025 21:55 +0000at://did:plc:rel24xeobfmxv3btw62s5v4k/app.bsky.feed.post/3les2wjuqgs2yhttps://bsky.app/profile/kevinspenst.bsky.social/post/3les2r4c4fc2yThere is no rest, really, there is no rest, there is just a joyous torment all your life of doing the wrong thing. —Derek Walcott, Harper’s, February 2010 [contains quote post or other embedded content]02 Jan 2025 21:52 +0000at://did:plc:rel24xeobfmxv3btw62s5v4k/app.bsky.feed.post/3les2r4c4fc2yhttps://bsky.app/profile/kevinspenst.bsky.social/post/3ldjs7xv4dk2wThe Dead Poets Reading Series will be in a new venue at Harbour Centre at SFU for our next reading January 12th. Please help spread the word! We would love to see you for our next reading Sunday afternoon at 3pm: @raoulfernandes.bsky.social17 Dec 2024 21:33 +0000at://did:plc:rel24xeobfmxv3btw62s5v4k/app.bsky.feed.post/3ldjs7xv4dk2whttps://bsky.app/profile/kevinspenst.bsky.social/post/3ldjrk7bo622wFinished marking, grading, etc for the semester & this poem (or just title?) from DH Lawrence rings more true than ever: If only, most lovely of all, I yield myself and am borrowed By the fine, fine wind that takes its course through the chaos of the world “Song of a Man Who Has Come Through”17 Dec 2024 21:21 +0000at://did:plc:rel24xeobfmxv3btw62s5v4k/app.bsky.feed.post/3ldjrk7bo622whttps://bsky.app/profile/kevinspenst.bsky.social/post/3ldjqxusiec2w"Distrust of poetry (its potential for inconsequence, its pretension to consequence) is the stuff of poetry." - The Resistance to Poetry || James Longenbach #amwriting17 Dec 2024 21:10 +0000at://did:plc:rel24xeobfmxv3btw62s5v4k/app.bsky.feed.post/3ldjqxusiec2w