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
Because of Poetry I Have a Really Big House (Review)
A very astute review of a new book by a poet that MANY poets love to hate has been published. It's a book by Kent Johnson called Because of Poetry, I Have a Really Big House. The reviewer is Norman...
A Forest of Names (Ian Boyden)
My good friend Ian Boyden is a brilliant artist who has a new book of poems to be released next month by Wesleyan University Press. FYI: A Forest of Names: 108 Meditations by Ian Boyden...
Tiramisutra
SPLAB 20 Year Bioregional Cultural Investigation
It has been the core of SPLAB's work since 2012 to engage in a bioregional cultural investigation of Cascadia. We owe a huge debt to David McCloskey's groundbreaking work, his evocative maps and...
Blue Rivers Writers Gathering
I once attend the the Blue River Writers Gathering, a biannual gathering at the H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest whose purpose, according to their website, is: to take counsel from each other and...
Some Notes on the Minuses
I was having a discussion with an elder poet about a poetry experience that I had recently which left me feeling outside. The funny thing is that's where I want to be. I can't do anything but...
Song Cousins
My regular open mic (sorry Peter, but "mic" is short for microphone and "Mike" is short for Michael) EasySpeak Seattle has been on hiatus since February AND WE BOOKED SO MANY COOL FEATURED POETS and...
Benefit Reading for the Community of Writers at Sq— Valley
I am delighted this week to participate in the Community of Writers at Sq--- (virtual) Valley. Virtual because of the ongoing (& well-founded) concern regarding the novel Coronavirus. There are...
Death of an Indian (Birth of a Shaker)
I was delighted to read as part of the Margin Shift series on Thursday, June 18, 2020. Earlier in the day I thought I would rehearse a long poem that is a huge part of the newly expanded edition of...
Margin Shift
I'm delighted to be doing another Zoom-Because-of-Shelter-in-Place reading, this time for Margin Shift, Thursday June 18 at 7pm. As its name implies, Margin Shift is the most diverse reading series...
TAKE A STAND: POETS AGAINST HATE
I hope you can join me for a reading curated by Phoebe Bosche of the Raven Chronicles from 2-4pm on Saturday, October 19, 2024 at the Microsoft Auditorium of the Seattle Central Library: Take a...
DaySong Miracle (Past 62)
DaySong Miracle (Past 62) by Paul E. Nelson Published April 2024Greg Bem, Carbonation Press: This is third of four “DaySongs” Seattle poet Paul E. Nelson has completed. The ritual was designed for...
Cascadian Prophets: Interviews 1999-2023
Cascadian Prophets: Interviews 1999-2023 By Paul E NelsonEdited by Sharon Thesen Cascadian Prophets: Interviews 1999-2023 is the second collection of transcribed interviews taken from the 30 year...
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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