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
1.1.2021 American Sentence
1.1.2021 - 2020 was taken out to the alley & shot in the head. 12.31.2020 marked the completion of twenty years of daily practice of composing American Sentences. (17 syllable poems, a form...
The New Year (A Poem)
Photo from CrosscutThe New Year January 1 too old to be hungover you unwrap the new year like a new stick of butter hope you get it in the dish at the right angle and not scrape off butter from the...
Letter for Diane di Prima Park
30-December-2020 LaMonte Bishop City of San Francisco Parks & Recreation lamonte.bishop@sfgov.org To the Honorable LaMonte Bishop, I am writing to urge you to rename Page-Laguna Park in SF:...
Diane di Prima Solstice Poem
Thank you Leggy Bruck for this: And di Prima fans should know about this: Rename Page-Laguna Mini Park to Diane DiPrima Park Why is this important? PETITION to Rename Page-Laguna Park as “Diane di...
My Personal Universe Deck
What's good for the goose... It was about 20 years ago (2000?) when I first learned about Michael McClure's concept of a Personal Universe Deck and 8 years ago when I took some of my retreat time at...
12.9.2020 American Sentence
The end of 2020 (aside from spawning millions of "good riddance" celebrations) marks the completion of twenty years of daily practice of American Sentences. These (usually) 17 syllable poems, a form...
FLEXIBLE MIND December 3, 2020
Rainier Beach Arts & Crafts Market
I am delighted to be part of the Rainier Beach Arts & Crafts Market, Saturday, December 5 from 11am to 3pm. Thanks to Ellen VanderWey, I'll be displaying books at 8735 Hamlet Ave S, a couple of...
Notes on Being Human Is an Occult Practice
I was excited to see a chapbook with such a provocative title. Magdalena Zurawski is the author and is currently Associate Professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of Georgia,...
Sharon Doubiago on Diane di Prima
Diane di Prima, August 6, 1929-October 25, 2020 I first learned of Diane di Prima as an actress. She played the part of Lula in the play The Dutchman by Leroi Jones (Amiri Baraka). It remains the...
Andrew Schelling in Seattle and Port Townsend
Fans of the Cascadia Poetics Lab are no doubt familiar with Andrew Schelling, the poet/translator and Naropa professor. We have interviewed him on several occasions:...
Robert Bringhurst at Seattle U, Nov 15
Robert Bringhurst will be talking at Seattle University on Friday, November 15, 2024, in Sinegal 100/110 at 4pm. Robert has been part of at least two Cascadia Poetry Festivals, 2015 in Nanaimo and...
The Nature of Zen: An Ecology of Being
From Ray Grigg: I thought I'd let you know that my latest book, The Nature of Zen: An Ecology of Being is now available from Xlibris for $20.99 and from Amazon for... $28.95. An eBook edition is...
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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