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
Postcards on the Altar
I am delighted to be part of an ambitious event being produced by Greg Bem, Eric Acosta, Amy Hirayama, and Denny Stern. Three of the four are postcard poets and all are energetic members of the...
732. Varney’s Nada
I have a practice of reading my journal entry from the same day of the previous year and love when poems I'd forgotten I'd written show up and still have some potency. Sam always warned me not to be...
Sam @ 80 (w/ audio from Doe Bay reading)
Sam Hamill would have been 80 today, May 9, 2023. He has been gone 5 years now, but he is in my head daily. Anytime I drink saké, eat sushi, look at my altar and often when I am engaged in reading...
Last of the Brenda Hillman Workshops
It has been a magical 10 week ride so far, examining Brenda Hillman's new book In a Few Minutes Before Later. In the last five week workshop we'll look at the last third of the book, examine...
Heavy Lifting Art Book
I am delighted to present an interview about the art book Heavy Lifting, a collaboration by Felicia Rice of Moving Parts Press and the poet Theresa Whitehill. Recorded Friday, March 25, 2023, via...
AWP Off-Site Events
The AWP Conference is in Seattle again (March 8-11) and 10,000 writers are expected to be in Seattle for the proceedings. (Come say hello to the Cascadia Poetics Lab at the bookfair table T1427.) We...
I Sing the Salmon Home
I'm delighted to have work in the new anthology curated by the outgoing Washington Poet Laureate Rena Priest. A postcard poem from 2022 was selected and I got this note from the publisher, Empty...
AWP Off-Site Readings
AWP is again having their annual convention in Seattle in 2023 and an expected 10,000 writers are headed here. (Don't say we didn't warn you!) The Cascadia Poetics Lab will have a booth at the book...
Acrostic for Halstein Stralberg
One of my greatest mentors in the Subud community, Halstein Stralberg, died on November 6, 2022 and was memorialized in Seattle at the Subud House/Spring Street Center on Sunday, January 22, 2023. I...
Shuri Kido Interview
What a blessing it was December 28, 2022, to interview Shuri Kido, the accomplished Japanese poet and Zen practitioner. As I told he and his translators (Tomoyuki Endo, Forrest Gander) on that...
Paul @ Bradner Gardens with Jim O’Halloran
Jim O'Halloran, the flute player and Subud brother with whom I have collaborated for at least sixteen years, wrote this yesterday: I’m delighted to be returning to Bradner Gardens Park again this...
Aug 9 Zoom Poetry Workshop
Along with three of the editors of Winter in America (Again, I'll be facilitating a workshop for the Arizona State Poetry Society on August 9 at 12N MST and PDT. (Confusing, I know. 12PDT.) I am...
Short ASPS Workshop Video
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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