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
Haibun de la Serna Official Launch
Thanks to Koon Woon of Goldfish Press and Leopoldo Seguel of Poetry Bridge, the official launch of my new book Haibun de la Serna happens Wednesday, April 13 at C&P Coffee Company and online via...
Runes, Revision, Wyrd
It is such a satisfying feeling when I draw the rune Laguz during my daily morning divination. I draw a rune daily as it gives me feedback on the energies/archetypes I am swirling out on any given...
Making Peace (Journal of the Plague Years)
Journal of the Plague Years saw fit to publish my poem Making Peace, about the Russian invasion of Ukraine: https://www.journaloftheplagueyears.ink/blog/making-peace I love this publication and...
Greg Bem Reviews Haibun de la Serna
Huge thanks to Greg Bem who has authored a five star review of Haibun de la Serna. CINCO ESTRELLAS in the immortal words of jazz pianist Elisha Gullixson. Greg writes on his blog and on Goodreads:...
Poetry for Ukraine
I recently participated in a couple of readings dedicated to addressing the Russian war in Ukraine. One event I had a hand in organizing. I was honored to be asked to read for the other. March 15...
Poetics as Cosmology (Talk given to Cal State L.A., March 21, 2022)
We do what we know before we know what we do. Charles Olson,as quoted by Robert Creeley inpoets of the cities of new york and san francisco 1950-1965 (Dutton ’74). p. 62 This subject is near and...
Proprioception
Ever since Fred Wah mentioned proprioception in an interview we did that was posted on YouTube and made into a podcast, I have been plunged back into a study of this capacity. It's how human and...
Reading w/ Jim O’Halloran Trio
It was a remarkable experience reading my poems with the accompaniment of the Jim O'Halloran Trio on February 25, 2022 at Kezira Café. Jim's a wonderful musician, bandleader and arranger. He...
Poems for Peace
Under the auspices of my position as Chair of my spiritual community's National Cultural Wing, SICA-USA, for 15 months (& two years before that as Secretary) I have been involved in creating...
West Seattle Workshop (15-APR-2022)
Thanks to the efforts of my publisher Koon Woon and Goldfish Press, I have been awarded a grant from Poets & Writers to facilitate a poetry workshop Friday, April 15 from 1- 3 pm at the Alaska...
Postcards from Mapes Creek June 8 4-7pm
I hope you'll consider coming to Rainier Beach this Sunday from 4-7pm to celebrate the arts of poetry postcards and our little urban stream that we hope someday will be totally daylighted. What...
Sam O’Hana on Opening Poetry to the Working Class
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...
Poetry at Cascadia BioFi
Cascadia BioFi is happening Saturday May 17, and the Cascadia Poetics Lab will be presenting poetry with no admission charge at 7pm. The conference: "will bring together leaders at the edges of...
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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