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
Sam Hamill’s Last Book
After Morning Rain will be released tomorrow (Tuesday, May 15, 2018.) It is the last book by renowned poet, translator, editor and founder of Copper Canyon Press, Sam Hamill and there will be a...
Anne Waldman, Andrew Schelling 2001 Interview
From the archives: Northwestern Exposure #336 for 4/22/01 - 55:00 Subject: The Poetic Activism Legacy of Allen Ginsberg Guests: Anne Waldman & Andrew Schelling Contact: Naropa University Date...
Postcards in Twisp
Thursday and Friday, (5.10 & 5.11.2018) I will be the Methow Valley for events that involve the August Poetry Postcard Fest. Fest registration starts in less than two months and this is the...
Paul Hunter 2004 Interview
Poet/Publisher Paul Hunter was the guest on a Global Voices Radio program which was recorded in September 2004. The subject was his book Breaking Ground and his own letter press, Wood Works. Paul...
Andrew Schelling and Left Coast Culture
When I was in California in summer of 2017, among my stops were with two poets who were reading a book about the life of Jaime de Angulo (pronounced dan GOO low) who was "a cowboy, cattle rancher,...
Sam Hamill’s Last Reading + Elegy
Dean of NW poets, Sam Hamill died on Saturday, April 14, 2018, at 6:04pm at his home in Anacortes, Washington. I last saw Sam on Thursday and Friday, April 5 & 6. We shared saké one last time...
Sam Hamill Official Obituary [May 9, 1943 – April 14, 2018]
When the first poetry books from Copper Canyon Press went on sale in 1972, they were revelatory showing that the humble technology of the book could be, and indeed should be, an artifact of...
Sam @ 70
When I started getting more interested in poetry, early 90s (which does not seem like such a long time ago) I'd heard rumors about this curmudgeon in the Seattle poetry community. He was gruff, but...
Socialize Facebook
As I write this, the founder of Facebook is apologizing to the U.S. Congress for the data breach that is being referred to as the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Not only has the confidential personal...
Rob Lewis and The Silence of Vanishing Things
Is a planetary ecological collapse underway? Yep. Does anyone care? At least Rob Lewis does. He wrote a book of poems and essays about the climate crisis and suggests that a shift away from...
For Mary Norbert Körte
I have finished creating podcasts with my two interviews conducted in October 2019 with the former Nun and poet Mary Norbert Körte. She died on November 14 at age 88 at her home near Willits,...
A Winter Solstice Reading
Over the past ten+ years my friend the poet and librarian Greg Bem has created some of the most inventive poetry gatherings I have ever experienced. One that involved divination and chance...
Rainier Beach Arts & Crafts Market/New Chapbook
I am delighted to be part of the Rainier Beach Arts & Crafts Market, December 3, from 11am to 3pm, at the Rainier Beach Community Club, 6038 S. Pilgrim Street. Bhakti and I have lived here in...
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.