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
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World Poetry Day (Seriality)
At the 11am presentation as part of my World Poetry Day/Free Coffee celebration at Caffé Umbria (Tutta Bella), I talked about seriality. In my interview with Nate Mackey 5 or so years ago, he said...
#IdesofTrump Report
On March 15, 2017, people gathered around the United States to write postcards to the 45th President of the United States, El Caudillo Analfabetico, SCROTUS and let him know what they thought of his...
World Poetry
Any self-respecting World Poetry Day would not be complete without poetry from around the world, so in the second hour, I read from Poems for the Millennium: Russia's Anna Akhmatova (from "Poem...
The interview I conducted with Sam O’Hana, a Ph.D. student at CUNY, is immensely critical and immensely validating for the work we do at the Cascadia Poetics Lab. At its core, the discussion is about whether writing is for people of means, or if it can be people who have skill and something to say. It means the literary gatekeepers have failed us and have a role in perpetuating neoliberalism in North America which has paved the way for authoritarianism. The interview is available as a podcast here and as a YouTube video here. Below, I have pasted in the transcript and here is my introduction to Sam O’Hana and his topic.