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
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
American Sentence 1.10.17
1.10.17 - Paraphrasing Ezra Pound: "Poetry is fake news that stays fake." #AmericanSentences
PC or 21st Century?
I have had a fascinating and enlightening dialog with an editor and Disability Activist that ended up with the publication of my (slightly) edited love poem for 2016 in a e-journal that puts me in...
Cumberland, Desolation Sound, BC
What a way to end 2016 and bring in 2017, but in a heated outdoor bathtub on the water! Bhakti and I are guests of Gary Hamilton and Adelia (Nicola) MacWilliam, as we're working with Adelia to...
Bury 2016
2016 is a good year to bury things. How many years get their own self-deprecating meme? And the notables who died this year is impressive, if you're impressed by death: Muhammad Ali, David Bowie,...
Ruth Lepson/Miriam Nichols on Charles Olson
Wonderful to see the review of Letters for Olson by Brooks Johnson in Hyperallergenic and just to have this book in the world. The headline of the article states well this book's theme: In Letters...
Ed Varney Interview
Ed Varney is a Canadian poet, visual artist and curator who lives on Vancouver Island. I had the good fortune to interview him in August 2016 at his home near Cumberland, BC. I've waited until today...
John Olson’s Broken Justy
The essential core of any project is to open. Open, open, open. Create a state of total nakedness, an anima mundi, a connection with the world-soul that is non-judgmental and quick to excite. It's...
American Sentences Reviewed
Michael Dylan Welch, who has been tracking my commitment to American Sentences for many years, made good on his promise to write a review of the book and wrote a very astute and fair one. I liked...
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...
Full Earth Day Agenda
Cascadia Poetics Lab Board Member Jason Wirth and I are leading a clean-up of Chinook Beach Park on Friday, April 22 from 1-3pm. We will have some garbage bags and a couple of pickers, but feel free...
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.