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
Poetry with Purpose
In planning for the Becoming Cascadian weekend May 31-June 3, 2018, the model used by my spiritual community (Subud) for its annual kejiwaan gathering is key. A very democratic affair in which there...
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...
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...
Postcards on the Altar
I am delighted to be part of an ambitious event being produced by Greg Bem, Eric Acosta, Amy Hirayama, and Denny Stern. Three of the four are postcard poets and all are energetic members of the...
How does one make literary art about this time in history that avoids rhetoric and facile political positioning in this era of the spectacle? How does one avoid being consumed by the simultaneous collapse of so many systems — some being eviscerated by people in positions designed to protect such systems? Deborah Poe has some idea based on her submission to the upcoming anthology Winter in America (Still.
Deborah is the author of several books of poetry including keep, Elements, and Our Parenthetical Ontology, as well as a novella in verse, Hélène. Her visual works–video poems and handmade book objects–have been exhibited throughout the US. She lives on stolen Coast Salish land, specifically the ancestral homeland of the Duwamish, Suquamish, Stillaguamish, and Muckleshoot People.
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