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 Postcards and Zen
An amazing testimonial for the Poetry Postcard Fest though it was not intended to serve that purpose. It is from Kosho Itagaki of Temple Eishoji (where I sit three days a week.) He writes: 🚤...
Matt Trease Interview The Outside
Matt Trease moved to Seattle, became a postcard poet, has long helped run the Margin Shift reading in Seattle, has been a board member of the Cascadia Poetics Lab for 8 years and is my good friend....
Kosho, Basho, Sam, Michael
If you did not know, I participated in the Jukai ceremony on December 11, 2023, under the direction of Kosho Itagaki, at Temple Eishoji in Rainier Beach. I took refuge in the Buddha, the dharma and...
Interviewing the Interviewer: Paul E Nelson
My appreciation goes out to Melissa Lemay, who turned the tables and interviewed ME about doing interviews, American Sentences, the Poetry Postcard Fest and Allen Ginsberg, among other topics. That...
Announcing En*trance Journal
(Image: “Inga” (Detail) 65 x 85” acrylic on canvas, c.2012 © Frank Galuszka) I'm delighted to be an Editor-at-Large for a new journal out of Northern California called En*trance. It can be...
Postcards from Mapes Creek June 8 4-7pm
I hope you'll consider coming to Rainier Beach this Sunday from 4-7pm to celebrate the arts of poetry postcards and our little urban stream that we hope someday will be totally daylighted. What...
Sam O’Hana on Opening Poetry to the Working Class
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...
Poetry at Cascadia BioFi
Cascadia BioFi is happening Saturday May 17, and the Cascadia Poetics Lab will be presenting poetry with no admission charge at 7pm. The conference: "will bring together leaders at the edges of...
Four Winter in America (Again readings
There are some benefits to having 8 editors of an anthology. It is 8 times the networking capacity. This is the case this week for the ongoing creative resistance to the current USAmerican...
Matt Trease The Outside
I've known Matt Trease since he moved to Seattle in 2013. He's from Tennessee and has spent time in Ohio, Milwaukee and Chicago, and left his academic track just short of his dissertation. We...
New Edition of Entrance
As a contributor to En-trance Journal, I'm delighted to announce that an excerpt from my last interview with Sharon Thesen is part of the offering: https://www.entrancejournal.net/ Sharon has a...
Cascadian Prophets 2025 Spotify Wrapped Stats
I was quite happy with the news from Spotify when I watched their 2025 Wrapped summary of the podcast stats for Cascadian Prophets. I was in radio for 26 years and got into podcasting late, but here...
Andrew Schelling via Vidyā (in direct contact with rasa)
I've been granted permission from Andrew Schelling to post a small excerpt from his new book of Vidyā translations for my ongoing online workshops. The new book is Old Time Love Song Magic: Sanskrit...
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.