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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Brenda Hillman at Open Books, Sunday 10.27.13
Brenda Hillman reads at Open Books tomorrow at 3p and I first met her at Open Books in 2010, I think it was. She has just completed her tetralogy of meditations on the elements, ending up...
93. The Fog Wet Web
Who could resist the term meteorologist Cliff Mass is using for this deeply socked-in fog situation we find ourselves cutting through here in Seattle? Fogmageddon. Not me. Combine that with the...
More on Spring & All
Open Books: Poetry in Conversation, No. 1 (pdf) I’d meant to write a blog post about the first in what promises to be a very interesting series of discussions about books of modern poetry at...
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.