Paul E Nelson presenting at Cascadia Poetry Festival 8, photo by Leszek Chudzinski
“Paul formally received the Mahayana precepts of Zen Buddhism in 2023, becoming a lay practitioner within the tradition, but I believe he had long lived in accord with them. His poetry, in its sensitivity, its humility, and its deep listening, embodies practice-realization — the understanding that practice and awakening are not separate. His writing was his zazen. This collection, FLEXIBLE MIND, is more than a book. It is a continuation of that practice. A testament to a man who lives by attention, who bows to language but does not cling to it, who seeks what lays beyond words by walking straight into them.”– Kosho Itagaki, Soto Zen Priest
PageBoy Magazine Release Party 12.1.12 7P Kaleidoscope Vision
Every since being introduced to Ted Berrigan's "The Sonnets" years and years ago, I was fascinated by the combination of a casual feel combined with a process that, in part, was influenced by Alfred...
American Exceptionalism and Charles Potts
I woke up this morning to find a person with the handle "Florida Cracker" was following me on Twitter. I clicked through to see his website filled with the notions of the remnants of "Manifest...
Rudy Ryser, The Center for World Indigenous Studies
On this Thanksgiving Day 2012, as I continue to digitize the SPLAB audio interview archives, I feel it fitting to present Dr. Rudy Ryser, Chair of the Center for World Indigenous Studies in Olympia,...
James O’Dea – IoNS & The Science of Consciousness
James O'Dea - The Science of Consciousness The former Director of the Washington, DC, office of Amnesty International was President of the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IoNS) when he talked...
Sam Hamill, Ian Boyden, Reading, Talk and Interview (Nov 11, 2012)
It’s one of those moments that you remember forever. Sam Hamill wanted to show me something in his home that he knew I would appreciate. He carefully lifted up an object about three feet high and 10...
Poems from Planet Earth
Poet – Sam Hamill, Painter – Ian Boyden
I will never forget the moment when Sam Hamill showed me the book Ian Boyden made of his new poem "Habitations" a couple of years ago. It was about a yard high and the cover was made from what...
The Four Hoarse Men at the Frye Art Museum
The Four Hoarse Men participated in an evening of Sound Poetry, curated by Doug Nufer and Jason Conger last night (Nov 1, 2012) at the Frye Art Museum. Details are at the Four Hoarse blog.
Interview and Audio of Poet/Activist Brenda Hillman
Paul Nelson facilitated the visit of renowned poet and activist Brenda Hillman to SPLAB in November 2011, as part of the Visiting Poets Series. The whole interview is here. Hear a clip from the...
Diane Di Prima – American Poetry and the Beat Movement from a Female Perspective
Diane Di Prima - American Poetry and the Beat Movement from a Female Perspective Diane Di Prima is perhaps the most well-known female poet of the Beat Literary movement. She discussed how she...
APPF13 Update
As of this writing there are 424 participants for the 13th August POetry POstcard Fest. Registration for 2019 ended July 18 and has BEGUN for APPF14. It will end July 4, 2020, earlier than in past...
August Poetry Postcard Fest 2019 Official Call
The August Poetry Postcard Fest was initiated in 2007 by poets Paul Nelson and Lana Ayers. 2019 marks the thirteenth year of the fest and this is the official call. It is the biggest annual...
APPF (Postcards Are Here Again)
The signup is already open for the 13th August Poetry Postcard Fest and opens EVEN EARLIER for 2020. (July 18, 2019!) In order to allow as many people as possible to participate in the joy of...
How does one make literary art about this time in history that avoids rhetoric and facile political positioning in this era of the spectacle? How does one avoid being consumed by the simultaneous collapse of so many systems — some being eviscerated by people in positions designed to protect such systems? Deborah Poe has some idea based on her submission to the upcoming anthology Winter in America (Still.
Deborah is the author of several books of poetry including keep, Elements, and Our Parenthetical Ontology, as well as a novella in verse, Hélène. Her visual works–video poems and handmade book objects–have been exhibited throughout the US. She lives on stolen Coast Salish land, specifically the ancestral homeland of the Duwamish, Suquamish, Stillaguamish, and Muckleshoot People.
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