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
It’s About Time 9.11.2025 6pm Ballard Library
Dear Friend in Poetry, Labor Day is over. The 19th Poetry Postcard Fest is over and I've written another daysong. After doing one of these all-day poem-writing rituals, it's about all I can think...
Sharon Thesen July 2025 Interview
What an honor to interview Sharon Thesen. Of all the people I know, she is in the 99th percentile regarding poetry perception. She has informed my own aesthetic, uses poetry as a tool to make...
rain shadow poetry festival
I'm delighted to be going back to Cumberland, BC, to participate in the rain shadow poetry festival. This is August 22-24, 2025, and is based on the work Adelia MacWilliam did in that part of the...
Paul @ Bradner Gardens with Jim O’Halloran
Jim O'Halloran, the flute player and Subud brother with whom I have collaborated for at least sixteen years, wrote this yesterday: I’m delighted to be returning to Bradner Gardens Park again this...
Aug 9 Zoom Poetry Workshop
Along with three of the editors of Winter in America (Again, I'll be facilitating a workshop for the Arizona State Poetry Society on August 9 at 12N MST and PDT. (Confusing, I know. 12PDT.) I am...
Short ASPS Workshop Video
Meet Mayoral Candidate Katie Wilson
On Wednesday, July 23 at 6:30 Seattle Mayoral candidate Katie Wilson will discuss quality of life and culture in Rainier Beach with an emphasis on efforts to create affordable housing for artists...
Winter in America (Again Monday, July 21 via Zoom
From Bill O'Daly: Dear Friends and Family, A reading based on Winter in America (Again, an anthology developed in response to the 2024 election by poets Katie Sarah Zale, president of the Arizona...
Resistance as Writing
How can one write poetry about current political events without resorting to invective or rhetoric? Why is this important? Poetry is a use of language that is capable of a kind of depth of being...
Eagle Harbor Book Company Canceled
Dear Faithful Blog Reader! The Winter in America (Again reading scheduled for tonight, Friday, July 11, 2025, has been canceled. The tour's last stop is tomorrow, Saturday, July 12, at 2pm at the...
Clyfford Still Museum 2026 Institute Residential Fellowship
Your humble narrator was awarded a Residential Fellowship for July 2026 at the Clyfford Still Museum. Here was my pitch video: As noted in the video (did you watch it?) I first became aware of...
Lorin Medley Interview
Our latest Cascadian Prophets podcast interview is now up. Lorin Medley is a poet from Comox, B.C. Her first chapbook is On The Way to Kluusms, published by Watershed Press. Lorin Medley's poetry is...
We are Axolotls: Somos Ajolotes Anthology
I'm delighted to have work in a new bilingual anthology! From the Carbonation Press website: We are Axolotls: Somos Ajolotes is an edited collection of major US Latin@ poets, who have lived in 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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