Thanks to Koon Woon of Goldfish Press and Leopoldo Seguel of Poetry Bridge, the official launch of my new book Haibun de la Serna happens Wednesday, April 13 at C&P Coffee Company and online via a stream that Leopoldo will manage. I hope to see you at the venue or via the livestream. This event is supported in part by Poets & Writers.

 

Details:

When: 7pm, Wednesday, April 13, 2022
Where: C & P Coffee Company, 5612 California Av S.W. Seattle, WA
Online: https://youtu.be/54XhlC7USRA Now featuring a recording of the reading.

And this note from Fred Wah was very much appreciated:

Dear Paul,

Many thanks for sending me your lush book of haibun, a form dear to my own poetic bent. I started reading into it from around the middle, Qinghai. I say “into” because the architecture of your composition is like diving into a full hard drive with decades of thoughts, notes, communications, etc., a treasure of “clutter”. As Olson might frame it, “The minute, truthful, and particular.” Eg. right there, the delight of  Coltrane edged alongside your Qinghai pocket journal. I also started there cuz Xining is not a well-known place to western minds but I have wonderful memories of attending a poetry conference there with Tom Raworth years ago. Good place to start, as a tourist of your accumulated knowledges and attentions. As I’m reading I’m thinking of Williams’ “Memory is a kind /of accomplishment/ a sort of renewal” and how each piece moves through new spaces, I feel like a kind of accidental tourist. It’s a text that engages dwelling reading, each piece so flowing with newness and singularity that I’ll read it slowly and particularly. I’m also enjoying a lot of the “shared” geo-, like Xi Chuan and Malea Acker, friends from my own journeys.

Congratulations on the publication of this impressive project.

Mahsie, Fred

And this note from Amalio Madueño, who published the first chapbook with haibun from this series:

Pablo,

Received your book in the mail.
Yes, a high energy linguistic construct — a continuous wordjazz-Ginsburg-Basho riff inspired by Ramon. As for placing my essay as preface, I had long forgotten it & it brings up more pleasant memories of my poetics work…

Consafos
A

If you have a conflict Wednesday, April 13, 2022 at 7pm, future gigs are here I am grateful to everyone who supports my work and I hope to see you & C&P. Also of note, a free workshop Poetics as Cosmology will be presented at Alaska House, 4545 42nd Av S.W., in West Seattle. There is one slot available. Let me know if you have interest.

These events are supported by Poets & Writers.

And this on Facebook from poet Robert Lashley:

“Paul Nelson wrote a superb, inventive collection. Burnished by his superb ear and remarkable gift for breath, It brings new forms to the attention of the inquisitive reader and carries on a mosaic of noble literary traditions. Highly recommended by me.”

& this note from Buffy Sedlachek:

I have been watching your last night’s event. I have now watched to the first break. I am astonished at the depth and breadth of your work! And suitably impressed with your stamina and how effortless you make it seem to be on the breath. No easy feat. I am guessing the audience was surprised to hear you say you needed to read a few American Sentences as a break from the work of the poems. I say this because of the ease you projected. I look forward to taking the time to view the remaining moments of the reading. It’s lovely to have it as a recording so one can linger over a passage or a complete work and view it more than once. Worldview!!Return of the King! The frogs!