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
David Stephen Calonne: Diane di Prima Visionary Poetics & The Hidden Religions
Interview with David Stephen Calonne, author of Diane di Prima: Visionary Poetics and the Hidden Traditions, Recorded via Zoom, Sunday, June 6, 2021, 1:30pm Diane di Prima, who died in October 2020:...
Poetry Postcards Black Mountain Style
I was delighted to team up with postcard poet (with a new book!) Margaret Lee for an essay that has been published on the website of the Journal for Black Mountain College Studies. Postcard poets...
Michael Boughn on Jack Clarke
Michael Boughn is a brilliant poet who edited Robert Duncan's mythical H.D. Book, studied with Robin Blaser and co-edited the dangerous website Dispatches from the Poetry Wars, now archived via...
Hamish Todd “Interviews” Paul E Nelson
I met Hamish Todd the first time I went to Red Sky Poetry Theater. I used some language in a poem that was a little outside the regular open mic fare, but he got it and gave me a kind word. That was...
Ed Varney (A Lot of Nada)
It was Michael McClure in about 2004 who suggested I go beyond the U.S. when studying Open Form poetry. That led me to José Kozer (Cuban, though living in Hallandale Beach, FL) and poets in B.C....
Pocket Lint (A New Journal)
I have admired Warren Dean Fulton for years, maybe since I saw some of his cute little chapbooks like the U.S. Sonnets of George Bowering: That was published by Pooka Press in 2007. Warren's been on...
Responding to the Black Mystery School Pianists
I saw this article linked in an article I was reading and then a friend sent it to me, so there was something synchronistic about it right off the bat. “God’s way of remaining anonymous” some wise...
McClure’s Last Book Mule Kick Blues
Michael McClure died one year ago, May 4, 2020 and the last book he wrote will be launched by legendary publisher City Lights May 8, 2021, via Zoom, 3pm. A memorial tribute to Michael with readings...
Armenian Genocide
I was delighted to hear that President Biden announced that for the first time in history the United States recognizes the Armenian genocide perpetrated by Turkey in 1915. See:...
The Wig Maker
How the life story of a woman abandoned by her mother and abused as a child by her father was turned into experimental lyric poetry is the premise of a book by Janet Gallant as told to Sharon Thesen...
Two Readings, Downtown Library, Jack Straw
I'm delighted to be part of two important poetry readings in the next few days. Saturday, October 19, 2-4pm, Microsoft Auditorium, Seattle Central Library, 1000 4th Avenue: TAKE A STAND: Poets...
Paul Reads at Jack Straw Oct 21 7pm
I'm delighted to have been invited to read as part of the Jack Straw Writers Program reading Monday, October 21, 2024 at 7pm. Other poets include John Burgess, Bill Carty, Denise Michaels, Susan...
DaySong of Thoughtless Openness
I am still floating from my recent visit to British Columbia, which I took for a series of events centered around Cascadian Zen Volume I. Events at the Mountain Rain Zen Center in Vancouver, the...
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.