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
George Bowering on George Stanley, Baseball Fan
While I was in Vancouver for the Subud Zones Conference, I interviewed George Stanley about his Vancouver: A Poem and After Desire. But I was also able to get a few minutes of George Bowering's time...
More 2012 American Sentences
So here is my state: I wanted to harvest my latest American Sentences (April 29 - July 5, 2012) about two weeks ago and could not, for the life of me, find my old pocket journal. ARGH! I had this...
Cascadia Basics by David McCloskey
David McCloskey sent me a link to a recent interview he did with KLCC at the Oregon County Fair: Thanks, Paul, for your heartfelt reply.... I forgot to include the good news:...
33. No Cigars for Potato (from Haibun de la Serna)
Video of Coyote Guts
Greg Bem not only helped organize the uber-successful Five Alarms Lit Crawl on Friday, July 13, 2012, he performed, emceed and took video. Here is video of your humble narrator reading Coyote Guts,...
Postcards and Five Alarms
I was preparing for my reading tonight at the Five Alarms Lit Crawl in Greenwood. (Gratitud y Gracias to Aaron Kokorowski, Greg Bem, Graham Isaac, Bryan Miller & other organizers.) The Four...
Subud Zones Conference, U.S. National Congress
Today ends an eleven day period during which I have been VERY BUSY with gatherings sponsored by Subud. I was "opened" in Subud on June 27, 2004 and started taking the latihan kedjiwaan very...
George Stanley interview – After Desire
Yesterday (July 2, 2012) I was fortunate enough to get a chance to interview George Stanley at his Vancouver apartment. A San Francisco native, he studied with Jack Spicer and Robert Duncan in the...
Interview with Shahar Bram on The Stones
I had the good fortune to conduct an interview with Shahar Bram on June 17, 2012. His previous book Charles Olson and Alfred North Whitehead: An Essay on Poetry was a huge find during the middle of...
Reading at Jack Straw Productions, Saturday, June 16 5:30P
I was asked by Jack Straw to read as part of their 50th anniversary marathon, Saturday, June 16. I'll read around 5:30 with Stevie Kallos and Kathleen Alcala. Please consider attending. Jack Straw's...
Promoting American Prophets
Dear Blog-reader, I have several events at which I will be promoting American Prophets and I hope to see you at one or two. February 3, 3pm - Elliott Bay Book Company. 1521 Tenth Avenue Seattle....
War Elegy 2b (After William Everson)
War Elegy 2b (The Lottery, January 23, 2019) In our end time, the days of pre-casino capitalism behind us against the cultural tinnitus nursing connection to non-local mind we seek to release all...
American Prophets @ Elliott Bay Books
I am delighted to be making a presentation about my new book of transcribed interviews, American Prophets, at the legendary Elliott Bay Books, Sunday, February 3, at 3pm. I'm hoping to play some...
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.