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
397. to Tony Iovino, Rockville Centre, NY – Ghost Prod
5th in this year's series, #397 overall (damn!) this one (like the others so far this year) vamps off Nate Mackey and goes into Runic lore. I have been using Diana L. Paxon's book Taking Up The...
396. to Dheepikaa Balasubramanian, Chennai, India – Indigent Petition
https://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/07/10/v-rmobi/155668/midwest-drought-may-spark-food.html https://seattletimes.com/html/nationworld/2018823898_apuswidedroughtusda.html
395. to Maggie Kelly, Tacoma, WA – Lichen of Light Green (August Poetry Postcard Fest)
394. to Ben Cook, Edgewood, WA – Listenings
393. Blown Up (2012 August Poetry Postcard Fest)
I am writing this post on July 27, 2012, after composing and documenting the first three poems I am sending in the 2012 August Poetry Postcard Fest. This was a project I conceived of and co-created...
2012 August Poetry Postcard Fest Afterword
I put my last two postcards from this year’s August Poetry Postcard fest in the mail today and, with the baby resting, have a few minutes to share my thoughts about how the fest went as is my wont...
The Four Hoarse Men
This past weekend was my first visit to Smoke Farm in Arlington, WA for the annual Lo-Fi Arts Festival. The farm was purchased in 1993 by the Rubicon Foundation which operates it as an arts and...
The Return of the Four Hoarse Men
The Four Hoarse Men will perform at Smoke Farm this weekend: 12731 Smokes Road, Arlington, Washington 98223 $40 General Admission / $20 Bike Ticket The Lo-Fi Arts Festival, Farm Time 2012, brings...
peN w/ the Jim O’Halloran Band
Paul Nelson reads a poem w/ the Jim O'Halloran Quintet Live at Bradner Gardens 1730 Bradner Place South Seattle, Washington 98144 Sat. August 18 6:30-8:30 PM Jim O’Halloran, Flute With Ben...
Review of Loving: Truths About Sex No One Told You
Review of Loving: Truths About Sex No One Told You by Emmanuel Williams We live in a very secular and materialist culture. I’m not sure if it was Nietzsche’s proclaiming that God is dead, or the...
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...
Vancouver Island Events
Please be sure to scroll down on this one, otherwise you'd think I am wanted for something: But it's a nice article by Josef Jacobson: Click on either image to see the piece. Other gigs on the...
George Lakey Interview (How We Win)
What a magnificent opportunity I had to interview George Lakey on January 11, 2019, on Capitol Hill. I had interviewed him MANY YEARS ago on non-profit development and this time it was about his...
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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