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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Practicing Breath and Outside
Watching the posts and the likes and the ads float by on Facebook is fascinating to me and I check in a few times a day. I can do a Google search for something like DIVORCE or CALIFORNIA TRAFFIC...
Nate Mackey at UW Bothell
I went to hear Nate Mackey this evening (Wednesday, Sept 30) at the UW and I strongly encourage Puget Sound area literature fans to attend his reading and conversation Thursday, Oct 1 as part of the...
511. Postcard Fragrance
This 2015 August Poetry Postcard Fest poem continues the “being as comedian” thread from the last poem, makes a reference to a direction in a prompt I saw online and alludes to some of the more out...
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.