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
Six Postcards
Bhakti and I got back from an overnight sojourn to THE MULTIVERSE on San Juan Island yesterday. We went to the community/arts spot Ian, Jennifer and Gavia Boyden have created to showcase art and...
Kozer on Seriality
In the car we listen to music almost exclusively on the old Ipod, which has remnants of the previous user's musical tastes. (Thanks Rebecca!) Were it to be passed down again, and were the new owner...
Wanda Coleman (Soap Opera Writing and Editor’s Mind)
Thinking of spontaneous composition during the 12th August POetry POstcard Fest while editing a Wanda Coleman interview from Fall 2000. She was one of our favorite visitors to the NW SPokenword LAB,...
Annual Bradner Gardens Concert
On August 18, 2018, from 6:30 to 8:30pm, I will again participate in what is becoming like a ritual for me, reading poems with Jim O'Halloran's band at perhaps the best community garden in the city,...
Elegy for Tahlequah’s Calf
A recent poem of mine was published in Cascadia Magazine. It is dedicated to the "Father of Cascadia" who suggested someone write a poem about this tragic incident. Thank you David McCloskey and...
Notes on A Sense of the Whole (Reading Mark Gonnerman Reading Gary Snyder)
Mark Gonnerman was a participant in SPLAB's Becoming Cascadian retreat last spring. In 1997 he organized a yearlong research workshop on Gary Snyder's long poem Mountains and Rivers Without End....
2018 Postcard Participation
293 people are registered for the 12th August POetry POstcard Fest in 2018. Included are participants from Alberta (1), Alabama (9), Arkansas (1), Arizona (1), British Columbia (1), California (26),...
Postcard Impersonality
Reading Mark Gonnerman's book A Sense of the Whole: Reading Gary Snyder's Mountains and Rivers Without End I came to Tim Dean's essay on The Other Voice. In the essay he states that in his 40 year...
Postcards in the Park
Two editors of 56 Days of August and two contributors gathered yesterday at the annual Poets in the Park event in Redmond, Washington. Ina Roy-Faderman, Your Humble Narrator, Joanna Thomas and Matt...
Epistolary Poetry by Sam Hamill
I have been getting caught up on some of Sam Hamill's work since his death back in April. Last night reading from his 1981 book of "casual essays" or "over-the-shoulder" glances he titled At Home in...
The Tunnel: A Literary and Arts Crawl
I'm delighted to be part of a literary arts event Sunday, July 9 from 5-8pm. The Tunnel: A Literary and Arts Crawl is the mastermind of Greg Bem, who will be moving from Seattle to Spokane for a job...
Brenda-ized City Sonnet
For three full seasons (October-June, 2020-2023) I have conducted online workshops designed to allow poets who have participated in the Poetry Postcard Fest to go a little deeper into the process of...
Postcard Poem as Ofrenda
After I suggested this title as the June 15, 2023, talk to be given at the Altar/Alter project, I realized that what I meant was more like milagro or folk charm, though one could make the case that...
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.