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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Reflexiones desde Puebla, Conversation Cafe
I've always known the quote as: "Travel is the worst enemy of ignorance" but in researching Mark Twain it appears to be: "Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness." Well, you get...
Un Poema para Frida Kahlo
I am experiencing my first Subud World Congress here in Puebla, Mexico, and it is stunning and miraculous. The intensity of the collected intention of 2,000 people who share an obscure (but...
Postcards & Other Spontaneous Methods
Now that the 2014 August Poetry Postcard Fest is up & running, I wanted to add a note for those new to the fest and offer a couple of possibilities to help shape a spontaneous poem and take some...
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.