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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507. Goodbye Queets
Poem #2 in the 2015 August Poetry Postcard Fest. (Audio here.)
After the Japanese 95-98
Near the very end of this series of 100 poems my Father died. (May 11, 2014) I'd not experienced much death in my life to that point and Dad died in his bed and not in some hospital, which made me...
15 Year Anniversary of Lost in the Woods
This September (2015) marks the 15th anniversary of my Lost in the Woods episode. I went on a solo backpacking trip in the Olympic National Park, tried solo bushwhacking and ended up in need of a...
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.