Paul E Nelson presenting at Cascadia Poetry Festival 8, photo by Leszek Chudzinski
Paul Nelson’s ongoing honing of the Day Song poetry event has produced some of the most lively and consequential verse of our time. How else write about the calamities and demands and mental/emotional/political consequences of the materialist apocalypse upon us, than an ongoing poesis of awareness and participation the anti-form the Day Song provides? Truly a praxis of proprioception and of Olson’s demand to “keep it moving...
- Sharon Thesen, Cascadian Poet/Scholar from B.C.
Postcards, Poetics as Cosmology, Embodied
The 2022 Postcard season is drawing to an end and I am delighted we have 17 complete groups this year and a tie for our best participation ever, 544. I have completed writing and mailing my 31 cards...
Reading in Courtenay BC
Thanks to the efforts of Ed Varney, I'll give a short reading at ARTFUL Gallery in Courtenay, BC on Sunday, August 28th at 7pm. (526C Cumberland Road.) There will be open mic and there is a...
Claudia Castro Luna Interview (Cipota Under The Moon)
I had the good fortune to interview a former Washington State Poet Laureate, Claudia Castro Luna via Zoom on June 17, 2022. We talked about her new book Cipota Under the Moon, her exodus from El...
Poetics as Cosmology Workshops Fall 2022
Poetics as Cosmology (Intro to Spontaneous Composition) A five week online (Zoom) workshop for people who have had a little experience in spontaneous poetry composition and want more. Join Cascadia...
Margin Shift June 16, 2022!
(This post has been updated to include Tay Stafford, who has just been added to the bill. There WILL be streaming on Facebook for those who can't make it down to Belltown.) I am delighted to read at...
Haiku NW Talk about Poetry Postcard Fest
It has been eleven years since I was a presenter at Haiku North America, on the campus of Fort Worden in 2011. I spoke on the subject of American Sentences, those 17 syllable poems that I have been...
Baler Reviews Haibun de la Serna
I can't begin to tell you how thrilled I am with Pablo Baler's review of my latest book Haibun de la Serna in the new edition of Exacting Clam. He was the person who introduced me to the work of...
Interview on the Found Poems of J.I. Kleinberg
We caught up on May 16, 2022, with longtime Poetry Postcard Fest participant Judy J.I. Kleinberg about her exhibit at the Peter Miller Books in Seattle's Pioneer Square neighborhood. J.I. Kleinberg...
Inside the Day Song (Workshop)
Get your five page handout loaded with links, prompts and inspirations if you register for this one day workshop before June 10. Take a look inside the course materials from our current workshop...
It’s About Time 9.11.2025 6pm Ballard Library
Dear Friend in Poetry, Labor Day is over. The 19th Poetry Postcard Fest is over and I've written another daysong. After doing one of these all-day poem-writing rituals, it's about all I can think...
Sharon Thesen July 2025 Interview
What an honor to interview Sharon Thesen. Of all the people I know, she is in the 99th percentile regarding poetry perception. She has informed my own aesthetic, uses poetry as a tool to make...
rain shadow poetry festival
I'm delighted to be going back to Cumberland, BC, to participate in the rain shadow poetry festival. This is August 22-24, 2025, and is based on the work Adelia MacWilliam did in that part of the...
In Honor of David McCloskey “The Father of Cascadia”
David McCloskey passed away on July 3. In honor of his lifetime of work to create and spread a culture that was deeply connected to the Cascadian bioregion, Cascadian Prophets, which owes more than just its name to his work, we want to share this interview from October, 2013. Find it transcribed on our website.
To listen to the original audio of this interview, click here.
Check out more of what the Lab does here, and listen to more current and archival podcasts on Spotify or on our website.
In Honor of David McCloskey "The Father of Cascadia"
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.
Check out more of what the Lab does here, and listen to more current and archival podcasts on Spotify or on our website.
To get original poetry right in your mailbox this summer, check out the Poetry Postcard Fest.