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, Part 2
Tuesday, October 7, I was almost set for starting the literary portion of my writing retreat. (For my first post on the rainforest writing retreat, click here.) Side trips to the Elwha Dam removal...
71. The Ambassador From Bakersfield
(Click on the poem to get the full text as a pdf.)
427. – Not Yet Muddy
427. to Ramon Hildreth, SeaTac, WA – Not Yet Muddy 9.26.12 Medora, ND, Ramon – Loaded w/ egg-salad and roast beast sangwiches, pass Oink Joint Rd. & Peace Pipe Vista to a ...
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
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...
Zhang Er Interview
A year after Sam Hamill’s death, in what might be his last book blurb, he writes: “Zhang Er brings us startling “burial ground poems from Chinese that are striking in their perspective and elegant...
American Prophets Review
Delighted to see a kind review of American Prophets that ran in an actual NEWSPAPER! How about that. Thank you Barbara McMichael for this: The book has now sold TENS of copies! Thanks to everyone...
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.
Check out more of what the Lab does here, and listen to more current and archival podcasts on Spotify or on our website.
To get original poetry right in your mailbox this summer, check out the Poetry Postcard Fest.