W. Todd Kaneko
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toddkaneko.bsky.social
W. Todd Kaneko
@toddkaneko.bsky.social
2.3K followers 600 following 170 posts
Author: This Is How the Bone Sings & The Dead Wrestler Elegies. Co-author: Slash / Slash, Poetry: Writers Guide & Anthology. Writing teacher. he/him/dad

https://linktr.ee/toddkaneko
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toddkaneko.bsky.social
W. Todd Kaneko @toddkaneko.bsky.social · Dec 10
The Cranky Poets shirt started as a Twitter joke a while back with Kelli Russell Agodon and Mitch Nobis about punk band names and poets being cranky.
Photo of a shirt featuring a flaming skull and a typewriter and the words “the Cranky Poets.”
toddkaneko.bsky.social
Off the top of my head in Grand Rapids: Patricia Clark, Jane Morton, Sasha Debevec-McKenney, Linda Nemec Foster, LS Klatt, Mike Sikkema, Jen Tynes, Katie Kalisz, and Alyssa Jewell. Andrew Collard may or may not still be in town.
January 22, 2026 at 11:53 PM
Reposted by W. Todd Kaneko
chiaradilello.bsky.social
Poet mutuals -- can I get a roll call of Michiganders??? I know I know two lovely Michigan-based poets (@mitchnobis.bsky.social and @janezwart.bsky.social) and yes it's a huge state BUT... kinda possibly dreaming of a midwest poetry roadtrip. Show of hands?
a man wearing glasses is standing in front of a blackboard and says `` anyone ? '' .
Alt: Anyone? from Ferris Bueller
media.tenor.com
January 20, 2026 at 2:13 PM
Reposted by W. Todd Kaneko
mitchnobis.bsky.social
I always forget who's currently in Michigan v. who *was* and what the Venn diagram is with who's on bluesky. I know @toddkaneko.bsky.social, @1andrewcollard.bsky.social, @dlassell.bsky.social, @mspencerpoet.bsky.social, @britrogers.bsky.social, @moonsatdusk.bsky.social are on here. Who else?
chiaradilello.bsky.social Chiara Di Lello @chiaradilello.bsky.social · 22d
Poet mutuals -- can I get a roll call of Michiganders??? I know I know two lovely Michigan-based poets (@mitchnobis.bsky.social and @janezwart.bsky.social) and yes it's a huge state BUT... kinda possibly dreaming of a midwest poetry roadtrip. Show of hands?
a man wearing glasses is standing in front of a blackboard and says `` anyone ? '' .
Alt: Anyone? from Ferris Bueller
media.tenor.com
January 20, 2026 at 5:31 PM
Reposted by W. Todd Kaneko
hanvanderhart.bsky.social
Happy to have two poems in this big, beautiful, double anniversary issue of Sugar House Review—AND is has eight book reviews MY HEART! 🩷🥰📚🎉🎉🎉

@sugarhousereview.bsky.social
Sugar House Review Sweet Sixteen Anniversary issue. Pink balloons and frogs on cover, adorbs
December 22, 2025 at 11:12 PM
toddkaneko.bsky.social
I don’t believe in New Year Resolutions but tonight I went to a roller rink and watched my kid figure out how to skate the hard way, then came home and started picking up some toys the twins left out including this little ball with a message written on it. Happy new year everybody.
A little ball with the words “don’t give up” written on it.
January 1, 2026 at 3:45 AM
toddkaneko.bsky.social
Thank you!
January 1, 2026 at 3:44 AM
toddkaneko.bsky.social
www.slowdownshow.org/episode/2025...
1424: White Hot Star by W. Todd Kaneko
Today’s poem is White Hot Star by W. Todd Kaneko.
www.slowdownshow.org
December 31, 2025 at 6:03 PM
toddkaneko.bsky.social
I haven't published many poems this year (kids, work, kids again), so seeing this poem "White Hot Star" featured on @slowdownshow.org today is a special honor to close this year out. Thanks to @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social for selecting and to the Cincinnati Review for 1st publishing. link in coms.
Cover image to the Slowdown 1424. White Hot Star by W. Todd Kaneko The knife my father kept in his car was gone by the time I got to his house—nothing but proof of insurance and the gas tank half-empty. I claimed a different knife I found in his desk because every boy should inherit his father’s knife—I tell my son this when he looks at the old black-handled blade I have hidden in the utility drawer at our house. This morning he told me how a black hole is born when a star dies, life collapsing and leaving a blank space that swallows the light, the comets, the street, the station wagon—everything extinguished, lost. Neither of us understands the science of gravity, but I know how it feels to live without a knife: tear what you can with your hands, rip everything with your teeth, and when the lights go out, feel nothing and imagine someone else’s fingers tracing the glint of your father’s knife, its keen edge against their thumb. When my son and I talk about courage, he claims the dark is the only thing he fears and I want to tell him, one day the darkness will swallow everything and someone who loves you will leave you something bright to keep you safe. White Hot Star by W. Todd Kaneko The knife my father kept in his car was gone by the time I got to his house—nothing but proof of insurance and the gas tank half-empty. I claimed a different knife I found in his desk because every boy should inherit his father’s knife—I tell my son this when he looks at the old black-handled blade I have hidden in the utility drawer at our house. This morning he told me how a black hole is born when a star dies, life collapsing and leaving a blank space that swallows the light, the comets, the street, the station wagon—everything extinguished, lost. Neither of us understands the science of gravity, but I know how it feels to live without a knife: tear what you can with your hands, rip everything with your teeth, and when the lights go out, feel nothing and imagine someone else’s fingers tracing the glint of your father’s knife, its keen edge against their thumb. When my son and I talk about courage, he claims the dark is the only thing he fears and I want to tell him, one day the darkness will swallow everything and someone who loves you will leave you something bright to keep you safe.
December 31, 2025 at 6:03 PM
toddkaneko.bsky.social
I got this newest one by Jack Bedell, FIGHT NIGHTS, about boxing and fathers and sons and more. Man I love this book.
Cover to FIGHT NIGHTS by Jack B. Bedell. Full text of “Foreman-Frazier II” about the narrator looking with his kids for the fight on YouTube and remembering watching fights with his father.
December 20, 2025 at 5:21 PM
toddkaneko.bsky.social
I always say that only cops and crooks call me by my first name and I got this letter today, a scam that targets people with Asian last names offering to split a nonexistent inheritance. Sharing it so my friends with vulnerable relatives can be on alert. Too bad because I really could use the money.
Scam letter offering a fake inheritance to me based on my Asian last name and assumed “nationality”
November 11, 2025 at 1:10 AM
Reposted by W. Todd Kaneko
chiaradilello.bsky.social
📢 ANNOUNCEMENT TIME:
We're less than three months away from pub day for my debut chapbook, CHILDLESS MILLENNIAL.

Tell your friends, your English teacher, and of course all your favorite non-biological aunties.

📚 Pre-order details coming soooon

Brought to you by @gameoverbooks.bsky.social 🕹
Ultrasound showing a book titled CHILDLESS MILLENNIAL. Below the image, Chiara Di Lello Game Over Books. In the top corner, Expected Jan 2026
November 9, 2025 at 8:47 PM
Reposted by W. Todd Kaneko
jesselkercheval.bsky.social
One week left to submit your poetry manuscript, translators! $1500 prize, publication by University of Wisconsin Press in their prestigious Wisconsin Poetry Series. You can submit more than one year (different judge) and more than one manuscript.
November 3, 2025 at 1:52 PM
Reposted by W. Todd Kaneko
bethanyblack.bsky.social
Alan Moore knows the score
November 1, 2025 at 3:41 PM
toddkaneko.bsky.social
Meta suggests this AI version of an old photo of mine but in addition to it’s inability to render fingers, Facebook seems unable to comprehend the crucial detail.
Two photos, one of my middle finger pointed at Trump tower, the other an AI render without Trump Tower.
November 1, 2025 at 8:51 PM
Reposted by W. Todd Kaneko
phillipcrymble.bsky.social
Edward Hirsch
Devil's Night He saw teenagers carrying flammable cans of kerosene and boxes of wooden matches, torching the discarded carcasses of Fords and Chevys, spreading flames through abandoned buildings and unused factories, lighting one-story houses on narrow lots in small neighborhoods. He saw old men standing on their front lawns in bathrobes, holding shotguns and green garden hoses to stave off the burning. A night of TV cameras and wailing sirens, an hour of reckoning, moment of judgment. He saw gas stations exploding like tinderboxes and party stores being looted, and He understood a new ritual of autumn, an annual reaping, a fury that gathered night after night, until it burst forth like a fever in late October. He was one of the bystanders who waited on the sidewalk passing a thermos of steaming coffee and a bottle of whiskey, watching fire- fighters wading into a furnace of buildings. He was there when the blaze finally calmed and the radios quit bristling with static, when the exhausted crowd dispersed and drifted toward home. And He was one of the few who were still awake to witness the sunrise, to observe a smoky disc flaring over the river, charring the rooftops, glistening in the ruins. He closed his eyes and saw darkness visible. Yellow flames brimmed over cinders and ashes. A broken skyline smoldered in the distance.
October 30, 2025 at 11:11 PM
Reposted by W. Todd Kaneko
hanvanderhart.bsky.social
So y’all know about the ring doorbell and partnerships with flock and thus ICE, right?

Get these devices off your homes.
Amazon's Ring to partner with Flock, a network of AI cameras used by ICE, feds, and police | TechCrunch
Agencies that use Flock can request that Ring doorbell users share footage to help with "evidence collection and investigative work."
techcrunch.com
October 30, 2025 at 1:04 AM
toddkaneko.bsky.social
Remember back in the day you wrote your own emails, took your own photos, and thought your own thoughts. The only difference nowadays is that big tech wants you to believe you never could and still can’t, so should have AI do it for you. I believe in you way more than I do big tech. You should too.
October 30, 2025 at 1:11 AM
toddkaneko.bsky.social
It’s really simple: use a plunger with a flange at the end and get enough water in the bell of the plunger for better suction. I had no luck at all until I got more water and suddenly: plastic legs!
October 27, 2025 at 3:14 PM
toddkaneko.bsky.social
Thanks to the guy on YouTube with the advanced toilet plunger technique, because now I don’t have to buy a toilet auger and a shop vac and spend the day taking out my kids’ toilet.
Rey Mysterio action figure on the rim of a toilet.
October 26, 2025 at 7:16 PM
Reposted by W. Todd Kaneko
maureenlangloss.bsky.social
It's a very important time to support queer and trans authors. I hope you will read this collection of truly stellar work by our talented contributors. 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈
splitlipthemag.bsky.social Split Lip Magazine @splitlipthemag.bsky.social · Oct 22
Celebrating the work of our trans and queer contributors today and every day! Check out a few pieces from our archive we hope stay with you beyond the blog. buff.ly/554vznz
A variety of LGBTQ+ flag pins on a table.
October 22, 2025 at 3:27 PM
toddkaneko.bsky.social
Lawler was one of the all time greats for sure. There a match with JYD where he spends a lot of time hiding a choke chain from the ref. One of my favorites.
October 18, 2025 at 8:52 PM
toddkaneko.bsky.social
This king. Fight fascism.
Martin Luther king jr.
October 18, 2025 at 4:36 PM
toddkaneko.bsky.social
This king. No others.
King Harley Race, pro wrestler.
October 18, 2025 at 4:33 PM
Reposted by W. Todd Kaneko
natallman.bsky.social
💔💔💔
October 17, 2025 at 10:30 PM
toddkaneko.bsky.social
Another broadside, this one I made for GVSU Poetry Night with Tyehimba Jess this week.
Broadside for “Mercy” by Tyehimba Jess, the poem with a heart, some vines and flowers.
October 17, 2025 at 2:06 PM