Humanity through poetry

West End

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This article was published 15/11/2023 (934 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Three years after beginning addiction recovery and rehabilitation in 2013, Spenser Smith began to find poetic inspiration in an unlikely place.

Living in Vancouver, B.C. at what was then the beginning of the fentanyl overdose crisis in that province, in 2016, he would often scan articles on social media and open Facebook comments and was struck by the nihilism and cruelty.

“I was relatively new in recovery and I was hurt by what people were saying,” the 32-year-old said. “People were saying really cruel things about people like me, people like my friends, and the people around me in the recovery community. I just had this really intense desire to respond, and as somebody who writes poetry and somebody who was studying creative writing at the time, it just felt like a really natural thing to respond to these comments through poetry.”

Smith’s September release, A Brief Relief From Hunger, is the end product of his urge to write. Through a collection of poems which ultimately tell the story of his time in recovery from what was a fentanyl — and eventually, food — addiction, Smith combines his response.

“I (have) this intense desire to respond to… the kind of discourse that says drug users are worthless and deserve to die,” he said. I wanted to show my humanity, the humanity of my friends, the humanity of people who are still out there using substances… their hopes, their desires and — thinking specifically about me — my relationship with my grandmother. The things that bring joy to my life.”

New to Winnipeg and now working as a copywriter at the University of Manitoba, Spenser says that, while the book was inspired by his Vancouver experiences, the crisis — and accompanying social divide — extends across the country. No matter where someone lives, harm reduction and drug education is essential in keeping addicts safe, Smith said. The fatal overdoses of his friends could have possibly been prevented if they knew what was going inside of their bodies.

While the book is reflective of Smith’s own journey, he took time to write about friends who died from overdoses and were not able to follow a similar path.

“I kind of had shivers up my arms just thinking about my friends who have passed,” he said. “It is a lot to put out there and I also have to be respectful of their stories, too. (As a writer), I’m quite comfortable writing about myself. And when writing about others, I can only say so much. I don’t want to write someone else’s story. So there was a balance of writing about my experiences while respecting the experiences of other people who can’t speak anymore because, unfortunately, they passed away.”

A Brief Relief From Hunger is currently available at local booksellers such as McNally Robinson and FriesenPress. Smith’s poems can also be read or listened to through his Substack page: abriefrelief.substack.com