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
Hugo House Write-O-Rama
Hugo House held its fun fundraiser, Write-O-Rama yesterday, adding a third time per year that they offer mini-workshops from teachers that usually teach, or have taught at RHH. I have participated...
More New American Sentences
Two months of the last year of the Mayan Calendar are toast like some human sacrifice down into a volcano and all I have to show for it is a few more measly 17 syllable poems. Here are some recent...
Seattle Cultural Survey
Save Charles Olson’s Neighborhood
Forwarding this from Peter Anastas, author of the Olson memoir, From Gloucester Out. He's asking us to: "Sign this petition and forward it to friends, poets, Olson and Gloucester lovers, who live...
Writing Haibun
Writing Haibun I first became aware of the haibun literary form through Anne Waldman's Marriage: A Sentence and through Sam Hamill's translation of Basho's Narrow Road to the Interior,perhaps the...
Poetry Postcard Exercise
Poetry Postcard Exercise Ted Berrigan, Robin Blaser and Jack Spicer are among the more notable poets to engage in such a project. Berrigan’s book of them (A Certain Slant on Sunlight) was completed...
Washington State Poetry Questionnaire
The new state Poet Laureate, Kathleen Flenniken asked me to help get the word out about her focus as the 2nd Poet Laureate of the state of Washington, the state poetry questionnaire. I agreed and...
2012 American Sentences (so far)
So, I found my pocket journal that went from October 13, 2011 to January 17, 2012. It was a scary moment when I couldn't find it for various reasons. I do not want to think about how a lost journal...
Personal Mythology in Poetry
By the time you read this, I will have likely performed as part of the 2nd piece of the Four Hoarse Men SOundPO project. (See video of the first project here.) Although due to scheduling we're three...
Poems published, Slaughter video
Things are getting close to critical here on the Nelson home front, with Ella Roque due on March 10 and the Cascadia Poetry Festival coming up March 23-25.We could use more registrations for that...
Elizabeth Cooperman, Thomas Walton, The Last Mosaic (Interview)
Interview with Elizabeth Cooperman and Thomas Walton on their book The Last Mosaic, published by Sagging Shorts, a division of Sagging Meniscus. Recorded Sunday, October 7, 2018, at the home of...
Deep in Cascadia
Huge thanks to Adelia MacWilliam, Danika Dinsmore, Dominick DellaSala and all the attendees and participants at the first Deep in Cascadia Poetics Retreat in Cumberland, BC. Special thanks to Andrew...
The Cards I Got (2018)
Here are two short videos of the postcards I received during the 12th August POetry POstcard Fest. #APPF12. These cards were the ones I received by September 4, 2018. 50 as of mail delivery time...
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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To get original poetry right in your mailbox this summer, check out the Poetry Postcard Fest.