nights, bearings, routes
night-bearing roots
in a breath’s expanse
the enclosure of a story
enduring
a minute
unpacked a few
blocks longer
people’s pulses
rise to face
flushed colours
sunset now ten
floors high
back on Haro, we’re
deepened into dusk
a seagull high above
glints the last stolen
sliver of magic
hour gold
it’s a pact
of heart
and lungs
on wings
what we bring
depends on
millions all told
promises
from long
gone gods
in wingéd helmets
ricochet like beams
through this gridwork
of stacked homes
soon to light within
like a stamp album open
profiling plants,
lamps, silhouette
of a cat and the
fleeting privacy
of travelers, thieves
merchants and orators
long gone travels
on the walls
where we sent off
that simple breath
reaching
through
the darkest
season with
Xs and Os
scattered
in old collections
of spoons, twigs
books, matches
seasonal cards
CDs and stamps
in everything you’ve
ever been
envelope me
and we’ll build
our nest of mystery
under the auspices
of broken gods
and sidewalks
buckled over
night-bearing
roots
nights, bearings,
routes
azimuth, navigation
compass, declination
civil inclination
magnetic fields
movements overlap
energy by induction
induced currencies
coils and cores
Faraday’s Law
density of manifestation
density of humanity
den of man
pride of lions gate
north, coal and forest
south, english kings and queens
lagoons lost and coves covert
west ends, and east begins, beckoning
***
Kevin Spenst has made many chapbooks and four full-length books of poetry. He’s an organizer for the Dead Poets Reading Series, writes for subterrain magazine, occasionally hosts Wax Poetic on Vancouver Co-op Radio, and teaches poetry at SFU’s The Writer’s Studio in Vancouver on unceded Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh territory. kevinspenst.com
Derek DeLand MRAIC Architect AIBC is an award-winning Design Architect & Writer nominated for a 2026 RAIC Award. Highly creative, highly experienced, tech-savvy. Projects with 5468796, MCMP, AMA, CDA, Northern Front, Spectrum include The Post on Georgia & Migrating Landscapes for the Venice Biennale of Architecture. Work published in Architizer, Spacing, above/ground press, U of Dalian Press CN, Concrete Trends ZA, international design books & magazines. Design awards include IAKS/IOC, Ontario Concrete & BCRMCA. All-typology design, with special energy for cultural, civic, art, towers, sport, skatepark, gnarchitecture. Derek’s architecture, be it minimal/maximal, primal/futurist, sculptural/cinematic, dynamic/zen, positive/negative, brutal/civilized, tectonic/stereotomic, solid/void, mute/articulate, witty/direct, is centred in the core position that architecture is first and foremost an Art. downspacecreative.com/architecture
