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
Poetry/Flute
Jim O'Halloran is a Subud Brother, nurse and brilliant musician. He plays flute and does occasional gigs around town, always surrounding himself with other excellent musicians. We met at the Seattle...
Claustrophobia 5: The Overflowing Patio
Saturday, June 23, 2012, 3:00pm Rachel Hug's House: 4219 Letitia Av S (Lower Unit) Readers: Emily Kendal Frey, Paul Nelson, Kate Lebo I am so psyched to be reading with Emily and Kate. I hope Kate...
2012 Ginsberg Marathon
The 2012 Allen Ginsberg Poetry Marathon was a remarkable affair that set a new record for duration: 13.5 hours. BIG THANKS to Mickey O'Connor, Band of Poets, Greg Bem and his EVIL BEMPIRE featuring...
63. Her Birthday, My Velocity
Good Haibun/Bad Haibun
I prepared this handout for the May 1 SPLAB Living Room and it is the second such piece I have written about haibun. As you may know, one of my current writing projects is Haibun de la Serna. This...
Five Alarms (Greenwood Summer Lit Crawl)
Sound the alarm! Five Alarms is bringing 14 of the hottest acts in Seattle literature to the burgeoning scene in Greenwood! Come crawl the streets of this North Seattle jewel of a neighborhood that...
Volunteer Poetry Teachers Needed for the King County Jail
This from Michael Hood: The Programs Department at King County Jail is looking for 2 committed volunteers of either gender to teach a weekly creative writing class for men. This is one of the...
Paul Nelson, Doe Bay Pig War writing residency
As you might have guessed if you've seen the photo of my daughter Rebecca and my Mom at Doe Bay when Rebecca was about 3 (1994), I have been going to Doe Bay Resort and Retreat for many years. In...
AG Marathon June 2, 2012 8PM
The Ginsberg Marathon this year happens Saturday, June 2 at SPLAB and may be SPLAB's last big event in Columbia City. Band of Poets is featured along with Mickey O'Connor. (See photos). This from...
The Latest from the Four Hoarse Men SOund POetry Troupe
Greg Bem, Jason Conger & Joe Chiveney, poets I met through SPLAB, liked my idea of doing a cover of a Four Horsemen Sound Poem. I had seen the clip from Ron Mann's documentary, Poetry in Motion...
Make It True meets Medusario
From the introduction (by Matt Trease) of an upcoming anthology I have had a hand in bringing into the world: Some Background This anthology is the result of a collaboration between Cuban Neobarroco...
Paul E Nelson’s Interviews by Jason Wirth
It was a very humbling experience for me Friday, December 14, 2018, to hear very intelligent and considerate people talk about different aspects of SPLAB's 25 years in existence, with a special...
Open Books Interviewing Workshop
I am delighted to be celebrating the release of American Prophets by way of doing interview workshops in and around Cascadia for the next few months. A workshop happens at Open Books: A Poem...
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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