The update of an essay, (Writing or Re-Writing: A Primer on Prevision) really a series of notes, on some of the history of what Robin Blaser called “The Practice of Outside” centers around Brenda Hillman’s wonderful new poem published in the book Seasonal Works with Letters on Fire.Here’s an excerpt from the Ecopoetics Minifesto: A Draft for Angie:
E–then a poem is its own action, performing practical miracles: 1. “the miracle of language roots” –to return with lexical adventures 2. “the miracle of perception” –to honor the senses 3. “the miracle of nameless feeling” –to reflect the weight of the subjec- tive, the contours of emotion 4. “the miracle of the social world” –to enter into collective bargaining with the political & the social
Paul Nelson is founder of SPLAB (Seattle Poetics LAB) in Seattle, the Cascadia Poetry Festival and the August POetry POstcard Fest (PoPo). www.POPO.cards. He has published a collection of essays, Organic Poetry & a serial poem re-enacting the history of Auburn, WA, A Time Before Slaughter (shortlisted for a 2010 Genius Award by The Stranger) and American Sentences, a book of 17 syllable poems drawn from the first fourteen of his 20 years of daily practice. The tenth anniversary edition of that book includes Pig War: & Other Songs of Cascadia. He’s interviewed Allen Ginsberg, Michael McClure, Wanda Coleman, Anne Waldman, Sam Hamill, Robin Blaser, Nate Mackey, Eileen Myles, George Bowering, Diane di Prima, Brenda Hillman, George Stanley, Joanne Kyger & many Cascadia poets (see: https://paulenelson.com/americanprophets/) has presented his poetry and poetics in London, Brussels, Bothell, Cumberland, BC, Qinghai and Beijing, China, Lake Forest, Illinois, Ukiah, CA, and other places & writes an American Sentence every day. www.PaulENelson.com
