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
Rainforest Writing Retreat
Ever since I have essentially become a stay-at-home Dad for Ella Roque, I have been plotting opportunities to get away to write more of Pig War & Other Songs of Cascadia, as well as essays in...
Nate Mackey Interview, Part 3
I interviewed Nate Mackey a second time on August 24, 2012, via Skype. The first two segments of that interview are summarized here. In segment three, our discussion of his latest book Nod House...
Latest 2012 American Sentences
The period from which the latest batch of American Sentences is taken has now been added to the page for 2012 American Sentence highlights. Starting in early July, these recent sentences include the...
Nate Mackey Interview, Part 2
In the first part of my latest (8.24.12) interview with poet, editor, essayist and novelist Nate Mackey, he discussed the serial poem, the open nature of it and how the poem itself guides the...
425. to Marjorie Rommel, Kent, WA – Western Front
424. to Jim Teeters, Kent, WA – Passerine Melody
423. to Joanne Clarkson, Olympia, WA – Other Side
Organic in Cascadia: A Sequence of Energies
Organic in Cascadia: A Sequence of Energies A presentation for UW Bothell Convergence on Poetics, September 30, 2012 (See also:...
422. to Lisa Janice Cohen, Newton, MA – Limbo w the Giant Uterus
The quote's from The Book of Runes. The uterus reference came from one of those Facebook graphics which I posted to my page the day I wrote this poem. Google lapsarian.
421. to Jenifer Browne Lawrence, Poulsbo, WA – The Turning Floor
Interview Workshop at Open Books
Interviewing as Inspiration, Research, and Documentation with Paul Nelson March 10 @ 10:00 am - 12:00 pm, Open Books, 2414 N. 45th, Seattle. To celebrate the 25th anniversary of SPLAB (Seattle...
2.20.2019 Peter Levitt Interview
What joy in the good fortune of getting to interview Peter Levitt at his Salt Spring Island (BC) home. To see Cusheon Lake frozen so solidly that Peter reports there were people playing hockey on...
Poetry Warrior
I am delighted to be part of the Dispatches from the Poetry Wars website. I have great respect and admiration for the main co-conspirators, Michael Boughn and Kent Johnson and they have me in good...
The interview I conducted with Sam O’Hana, a Ph.D. student at CUNY, is immensely critical and immensely validating for the work we do at the Cascadia Poetics Lab. At its core, the discussion is about whether writing is for people of means, or if it can be people who have skill and something to say. It means the literary gatekeepers have failed us and have a role in perpetuating neoliberalism in North America which has paved the way for authoritarianism. The interview is available as a podcast here and as a YouTube video here. Below, I have pasted in the transcript and here is my introduction to Sam O’Hana and his topic.