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
A Few Postcard Notes
I'm just about finished with the 2017 Peace Postcards project. There are 28 poets on my list and without sending a card to myself, that means I had 27 poems to write and will probably get the last...
The Road Diet Starts at My House
(Huge thanks to Marcus Green for publishing my essay on the success of the Rainier Avenue South Road Diet. Click on photo to see it on the South Seattle Emerald website along with some other...
James Baldwin Is Not…
Last Friday I saw, for the second time, the Raoul Peck masterpiece "I Am Not Your Negro." A very astute New York Times review by A.O. Scott suggests that the film utilizing the words of James...
#Ides of Trump (A Postcard Project)
Here's one of those Facebook memes that when I first saw it I thought "I'll pay attention if it comes around again." Then August Poetry Postcarder Alley Greymond re-posted it, so I shared it and am...
2.8.17 – American Sentence
2.8.17 - Spiders can’t get outta sinks, palmetto bugs can’t get outta bathtubs. #AmericanSentences #LakeWorthWhereTheTropicsBegin #SorryNoPhoto
Visiting Jaco’s Grave
It is hard to believe that it's been almost twenty years since the legendary bassist for Weather Report, Jaco Pastorius, died due to complications from a beating he took from a bouncer at a South...
Some 2016 American Sentences
I used to post my best American Sentences at the end of every year, or shortly into the new one. But once I published my first book of such poems, I thought it best for people who got something out...
We Shall Overcomb (& Other Signs from the Seattle Womxn’s March)
My partner Bhakti Watts and I did not have Pussy Hats, but we made a decision to march in the Seattle Womxn's March yesterday starting at Judkins Park and we were glad we did. We had sunshine for...
Racist Cascadia?
I was tagged in a Facebook post today because it was related to the concept of Cascadia and due to my work as a bioregionalist in the bioregion known by some as Cascadia. The post by Brian McCracken...
American Sentence 1.11.17
1.11.17 - Here is a business opportunity - Donald Trump urinal cakes. #AmericanSentences
Interview on the Found Poems of J.I. Kleinberg
We caught up on May 16, 2022, with longtime Poetry Postcard Fest participant Judy J.I. Kleinberg about her exhibit at the Peter Miller Books in Seattle's Pioneer Square neighborhood. J.I. Kleinberg...
Inside the Day Song (Workshop)
Get your five page handout loaded with links, prompts and inspirations if you register for this one day workshop before June 10. Take a look inside the course materials from our current workshop...
Pierre Joris Interview (Canto Diurno #1, 2-MAY-2022)
It’s a pretty ambitious goal to write an epic poem in a day. Bernadette Mayer’s Midwinter Day, an epic about the daily routine written on Winter Solstice 1978, is like no other project that I know...
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.