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
Lorin Medley Interview
Our latest Cascadian Prophets podcast interview is now up. Lorin Medley is a poet from Comox, B.C. Her first chapbook is On The Way to Kluusms, published by Watershed Press. Lorin Medley's poetry is...
We are Axolotls: Somos Ajolotes Anthology
I'm delighted to have work in a new bilingual anthology! From the Carbonation Press website: We are Axolotls: Somos Ajolotes is an edited collection of major US Latin@ poets, who have lived in the...
Gallery 100 Panel Discussion The Beauty Shop
I have the good fortune of being a moderator at Gallery 110 this Saturday from 4 to 6. 110 3rd Avenue S, Seattle. Saundra Fleming is one of 5 painters who are known as Beauty Shop. Their new exhibit...
Theodore Roethke, 1st Cascadia Poet
I had the good fortune to interview Bill Barillas on The North American Sequence of Theodore Roethke. Sam Hamill told me before he died that this sequence was the beginning of Cascadian poetry and...
12 Stringed Mind in the Place of Sand Imbolc 2026 DaySong @ Poetry Bridge
I've been fortunate to have been offered featured readings over the last few years at Poetry Bridge, which happens at C and P Coffee Company in West Seattle. My next featured reading there is...
Ralph Towner 1940-2026
One of my greatest disappointments in life is that I never saw Ralph Towner in concert. He died today in Rome. There are many places online where you can get the details of his life and career and I...
Celebration of Koon Woon
On Wednesday night at C&P Coffee Company in West Seattle, longtime Seattle poet and publisher Koon Woon was honored by his friends, by poets who he mentored and those who love him. Here is the...
An Ocean of Time—The Poetry of Sam Hamill Set to Song
Jan 2, 2026 Interview with Cornelius Eady on Proof
On January 1, 2026, a 34-year-old, immigrant, Muslim, democratic socialist mayor was sworn in to run the largest city in the United States. When asked by the Nation magazine if this unlikely event...
New Edition of Entrance
As a contributor to En-trance Journal, I'm delighted to announce that an excerpt from my last interview with Sharon Thesen is part of the offering: https://www.entrancejournal.net/ Sharon has a...
Cascadia Day Poetry Explosion May 18 7pm
May 18 is Cascadia Day, because it is the anniversary of the eruption of Mt. St. Helens.Bioregional journalist Andrew Engelson invited me to read at Vermillion, 1508 11th Avenue, May 18 at 7pm. Matt...
Interview with Deborah Poe on her Submission to Winter in America (Still
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...
Theodore Roethke and the Birth of Cascadian Poetry
I'm honored to be giving a talk/reading on the subject of: Theodore Roethke and the Birth of Cascadian Poetry on May 12, 2026. I have been invited by The Friends of Roethke organization....
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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