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
The Mud Proposal
Thanks to Aryanil Mukherjee and Pat Clifford, I am delighted to have work in the latest Mud Proposal. Aryanil is responsible for the Bengali poetry journal Kaurab and curates the Mud Proposal, named...
Three Memorials for Judith Roche
On December 24, 2019, the Seattle Times published its obituary for Judith Roche. An excerpt: “My basic thing is that poetry is approaching the holy and it’s a translation of the sacred and it says...
PoPo Interviews
I am looking to interview at least ten postcard participants in the next few weeks to create some videos for a new PoPo website that will replace the current page on my cluttered personal site....
Make it True meets Medusario Review
Thank you Paul Constant, at the Seattle Review of Books, for the kind and (I think) perceptive review of an anthology I had a hand in bringing into the world. Make It True meets Medusario is indeed...
No Map, No Jud (For Judith Roche)
My elegy for Judith Roche has been published by the South Seattle Emerald: https://southseattleemerald.com/2019/11/24/sunday-stew-no-map-no-jud-for-judith-roche/ See also:...
Bill Mawhinney Bids Adieu to Northwind
I had the good fortune to read AT LEAST three times during Bill Mawhinney's tenure as producer of the monthly Northwind Poetry series in Port Townsend over the last 13 years. That he came out of the...
Judith Roche, Rest in Power
I was saddened to hear the news via Facebook that Judith Roche died at her home in Seattle's Leschi neighborhood tonight. (Thursday, November 14, 2019). I had a chance to visit her last week and she...
Interview with Beat Nun Mary Norbert Körte (Oct 25, 2019)
The second and third interviews with former Catholic Nun Mary Norbert Körte were conducted by your humble narrator on Friday, and Saturday, October 25 and 26, 2019. While the woodstove fire crackled...
Reading in Ukiah
I will be heading to extreme Southern Cascadia Thursday, and go out of the bioregion to read in Ukiah, California. I am headed south to meet and interview Mary Norbert Körte, a poet, and former...
Happy 87th Michael McClure
I loved hearing Michael McClure and Allen Ginsberg at Naropa in 1976. See:...
Pie & Poetry @ C&P on Valentine’s Day
Poetry Bridge is celebrating 14 years of community mic readings at C&P Coffee Company in West Seattle on Wednesday, February 14, 2024. 6:30 it's time for pie and signups. 7pm a reading that will...
Colleen McElroy Interview
In the wake of the death of Colleen McElroy on Tuesday, December 12, 2023, we are re-posting this interview conducted in 2016. This interview will be part of the next book of transcribed interviews...
Cascadian Zen Launch at Elliott Bay Dec 4, 2023
I am thrilled to present Cascadian Zen at the legendary Seattle independent bookstore Elliott Bay Book Company, Monday, December 4, 2023, 7pm (sharp) at 1521 Tenth Avenue in Seattle, WA. This will...
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.