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
Cascadia Poetry Festival
Friend, just 3 weeks until the 4th Cascadia Poetry Festival. I hope you will consider attending. We need your support of this event, which is the most ambitious thing I have ever attempted to do. My...
RIP Bridget A. Nutting
Sad to report that one of the longtime August Poetry Postcard Fest participants, Bridget Nutting of Vancouver, Washington, died yesterday, Sunday, October 9, 2016. From her son Josh: On Sunday...
Blue River Writers Gathering 2016
So much to share with the preparations for the 4th Cascadia Poetry Festival Nov 3-6, with the last day of our fundraising campaign to install a modest plaque to honor the memory of Denise Levertov...
Cascadia IV (I Did Not Build That)
I'm thinking of the controversy from an event during the 2012 U.S. Presidential campaign. It's the You Didn't Build That notion and was the response by less conscious people about the nature of how...
Denise Levertov Plaque
I've never attempted anything like this before, but have had some potential poetry plaques that were discussed, but plans fell through. This one is going to happen. I am working with Jayne DeHaan of...
Demise of Mental-Rational Ontology
It never ceases to amaze to me to see how connections in this world are made, how, in the words of Michael McClure: "We swirl out what we are and watch what returns." Case in point, a lodger coming...
2016 Postcards I Got (Video)
There's not much more I can say about the 2016 August Poetry Postcard Fest that I did not say in the first of two videos that I created today (Sept 7, 2016): And to pick out highlights is so...
August Poetry Postcard Fest 2016 Afterword
Such a bittersweet feeling to drop off my last three poetry postcards at the post office. Even though there is a mailbox downstairs here at the swinging Angeline and a mailbox on the corner of...
Chani Nicholas, Latihan and Postcards
I love it when different parts of my life intersect, reinforce, inform one another, validate, how ever you want to put it. It took an Einstein, I am told, to say: "Coincidence is God's way of...
Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun Interview
On August 6, 2016, I was honored to have a rare opportunity to interview Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun, one of the most brilliant painters in Cascadia. His work is also the subject of Unceded...
Poetry for Ukraine
I recently participated in a couple of readings dedicated to addressing the Russian war in Ukraine. One event I had a hand in organizing. I was honored to be asked to read for the other. March 15...
Poetics as Cosmology (Talk given to Cal State L.A., March 21, 2022)
We do what we know before we know what we do. Charles Olson,as quoted by Robert Creeley inpoets of the cities of new york and san francisco 1950-1965 (Dutton ’74). p. 62 This subject is near and...
Proprioception
Ever since Fred Wah mentioned proprioception in an interview we did that was posted on YouTube and made into a podcast, I have been plunged back into a study of this capacity. It's how human and...
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.