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
2 Anthologies: Footsteps & South Seattle Emerald
I am blessed to have work in TWO anthologies coming out in the next two weeks. The first is the South Seattle Emerald's Emerald Reflections: A South Seattle Emerald Anthology. It comes out of the...
Happy 69th Nate Mackey
Nate Mackey, born on this day in 1947, gets the Birthday Anagram Treatment. And do enjoy the interview we did in 2012. And this excerpt from an interview we did that was published in Amerarcana as...
Three Friends Carousel
I can't begin to say how delighted I am that this interview with José Kozer I conducted in 2015 is now available as a book. I so wanted to post as much of this material as possible because it may be...
Jeanne Heuving The Transmutation of Love and Avant-Garde Poetics
On Friday, October 14, 2016, I had the good fortune to interview Jeanne Heuving about her new book: The Transmutation of Love and Avant-Garde Poetics. That she was writing about Projective Verse was...
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...
Haiku NW Talk about Poetry Postcard Fest
It has been eleven years since I was a presenter at Haiku North America, on the campus of Fort Worden in 2011. I spoke on the subject of American Sentences, those 17 syllable poems that I have been...
Baler Reviews Haibun de la Serna
I can't begin to tell you how thrilled I am with Pablo Baler's review of my latest book Haibun de la Serna in the new edition of Exacting Clam. He was the person who introduced me to the work of...
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...
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.