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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483. Iniciador
My poems written in Mexico in August are starting to arrive at their intended destinations and so I continue with the posting here. The last few lines from this poem are taken almost verbatim from a...
The Postcards I Got
At last count, forty poetry postcards came my way as part of the 2014 August Poetry Postcard Fest. Having just completed its eighth year, the fest is an effort to build community, to allow...
Stephen Collis, Cascadia Po Fest Closing Reading
One of the high points for me at the 2nd Cascadia Poetry Festival May 2014, at Seattle U and Spring Street Center in Seattle, was hearing Stephen Collis read. He may be the quintessential Cascadia...
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.