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 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...
Some End/West Broadway Bowering/Stanley Book Launch
I got this in the mail last week from New Star Books of Vancouver, BC: Actually, it was addressed from Point Roberts, WA, a little strip of land, a peninsula actually, south of the 49th parallel,...
Bay Area Postcard Readings!
The launch of 56 Days of August: Poetry Postcards, an anthology that was ten years in the making is finally happening in the Bay Area THIS WEEKEND! Ina Roy-Faderman has worked tirelessly to help...
Ellensburg Poetry Prowl
I am delighted to be part of the Ellensburg Poetry Prowl, April 7, 2018, in downtown Goatburg. (Does anyone call it that anymore?) A tribute to Langston Hughes, there are three days of events, but...
Lewis MacAdams Interview
In the effort to catalog all the programs done during the days in which I syndicated a weekly public affairs radio program, the latest gem I have re-discovered is a 2001 interview with poet Lewis...
C&P March 14 w/ John Olson
A participant in an open mic recently mentioned how important such spaces are now in our culture, with such political unrest and division. She could have also mentioned the ecological crisis we're...
Negative Capability in Painting
I am delighted to have been accorded the pleasure of moderating a panel of painters on the subject of Negative Capability. Details:Gallery 110 will be hosting a panel discussion featuring Carol...
Brenda Hillman Interview on In A Few Minutes Before Later
On December 12, 2022 I had the honor to again interview Brenda Hillman. This time it was on Zoom about her new book In A Few Minutes Before Later. The audio is available as part of the Cascadian...
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,...
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.