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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Hillman City Haibun 4 (Sleep, Crackers)
It's a toss-up for the best American Sentence this week. Yesterday's pertains to a new health condition, or at least a new diagnosis. Today's comes from a source who said she did not write it, but...
After The Japanese 25-28
In this stretch of the project of writing inspired by the classic Japanese poetry anthology, I start in memory and move to the time about a year ago when I was the guest of Gerry Cook and Hannah...
Four Hoarse Men Ride Again
A couple of years ago I became part of a group of poets that sought to explore poetry from the angle of pure sound in the tradition of Dada, Kurt Schwitters, the Four Horsemen (of Canada, from whom...
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.