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
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...
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...
Last of the Brenda Hillman Workshops
It has been a magical 10 week ride so far, examining Brenda Hillman's new book In a Few Minutes Before Later. In the last five week workshop we'll look at the last third of the book, examine...
Heavy Lifting Art Book
I am delighted to present an interview about the art book Heavy Lifting, a collaboration by Felicia Rice of Moving Parts Press and the poet Theresa Whitehill. Recorded Friday, March 25, 2023, via...
AWP Off-Site Events
The AWP Conference is in Seattle again (March 8-11) and 10,000 writers are expected to be in Seattle for the proceedings. (Come say hello to the Cascadia Poetics Lab at the bookfair table T1427.) We...
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.