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
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...
AWP Readings
I am delighted to participate in two readings at AWP which in L.A. this year. One is at the Asterism booth, #750, Thursday, March 27 at 11am. Asterism has picked up much of the slack of SPD's...
Imbolc 2025 Dharma Position Daysong
I feel very fortunate to have successfully navigated another daysong, a day-long poem writing ritual. I set aside Imbolc 2025 to write, as that pagan holiday (& celebration of return of the...
Anne Tardos The Always Already Absent Present
What a joy to interview Anne Tardos about her new book The Always Already Absent Present. The audio is online thanks to Zach Charles and here is the video, recorded March 4, 2025. My introduction:...
Stephan Torre
One of the great joys in participating in the recent Cascadia: A Braided Land event at UBCO was meeting 84 year old Northern Cascadia poet Stephan Torre. With roots in Big Sur back in the days...
Notes for Christo Rey High School Talk on Bioregionalism
24-FEB-2025 How I got into radio. 1974, Lane Tech, cut-off record:Radio career: 1980-2026, Chicago, Baltimore, West Palm Beach, Appleton, Peoria, Seattle in 1988. Transition from D.J. to Community...
DaySong Workshops
As you may know, for the last few years I have added a day-long ritual poem writing project to my array of practices. I've come to call these events "daysongs" after the Canto Diurno by the late...
Winter in America (Still call for work
Call for Poems/Prose/ArtI hope this finds you well despite this troubling political time. In response, the editors of the Winter in America anthology series are building a literary and artistic...
Linda Russo on the verdant
As the planet heats up, many animal species are either headed north or going extinct. This makes the work of the poet as witness that much more important. Who is here now? And as the culture becomes...
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.