“My relationship to the word is anything but scientific; it is a matter of faith on my part, that the word endows material substance, by setting the thing named apart from all else.”
C.D. Wright
Find My Work
Online Publications
“Manhouse”, Salvation South
“Strange Angel”, Flowers of the Field
“Oneida”, “Tonight, I Have to Dream About My Father’s Grave”, “Independence Day”, “The Whistling Moon”, and “Build Something, You Effeminate Hillbillies” , Appalachian Places
“Variations”, composed for the record When the Spirit Comes All Over You by Sweet Teeth, listen on Bandcamp.
“A Brief History of Fire”, inksounds
“Gray’s Arch”, Intangible Magazine
“The Grief Log”, Marathon Literary Review
“Snake Day” and “Wildflowers”, Hobart Pulp
Five Poems, Still: The Journal
“The Faith of Withered Seeds” & “Creation Myth”, Appalachian Review
“Feeling Synesthetic”, Bridge Eight: The Dark Heart of Messier 87
“Suicide Attempt: How Can You Love Another If You Do Not First Love Yourself” & “It Can Be So Hard To Close My Heart Sometimes Especially”, Killjoy: The #Access Issue
“Soup du Jour” the museum of americana, issue 16
In Print & For Purchase
“Concerning the Service” (debut chapbook), Beyond Words Press
“Ensuring that My Grief Knows I Mean Business, in the Land of Swinging Bridges”, “Reasons to Launch One-Thousand Ships”, & “The Muskrat, or Against Anthropomorphism”, The Southern Humanities Review
“Four Poems”, Woodwasp no. 7 by Painted Door Press
“Five Poems”, Woodwasp no. 6 by Painted Door Press
“Naked Warlocks In Big City’s Many Shadows”, “Party Dream In Big City Movie Tavern”, “Last Call, Big City, Early Afternoon”, “Bad Art Show In Big City, From The Top”, Woodwasp no. 5 by Painted Door Press
“The Faith of Withered Seeds” & “Creation Myth”, Appalachian Review
“Others Wait To Ripen”, The Canopy Review
“To Pennsylvania I Believe From Ohio” & “To A Desert Forwarded To The Midwest From A Telephone Booth”, Woodwasp no. 4 by Painted Door Press
About Me
Clayton Spencer is a poet from Southeastern Kentucky. His debut chapbook is “Concerning the Service” from Beyond Words Press. Clayton is a 2024 recipient of the ARTie Award for artistic excellence in poetry from The Ohio Arts Council. His work has appeared in Appalachian Review, The Southern Humanities Review, and elsewhere.
The Poetry of Clayton Spencer 
