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
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...
Annual Bradner Gardens Reading
I get to read Saturday with the Jim O'Halloran Quintet at Bradner Gardens, which is always a gas. The band is amazing and Jim always takes time to work out an intelligent plan to accompany my work....
Primal Fear
It was coming out of the canoe and walking up the path at the North Leschi Marina with my daughter Rebecca, as my partner Bhakti rowed on in her canoe on Lake Washington that it hit me. The...
Postcard Gift
It is the tenth year of the August Poetry Postcard Fest and as I was taking an afternoon walk this past weekend, it hit me - what a gift this annual event is through and through. Having so many...
Ten Years of Postcard Fest
The tenth year of the August POetry POstcard Fest is under way and there are seven full groups of 32 poets, 224 participants in all, which is a record for the fee era. And there are participants...
Ina Roy-Faderman’s Postcard Testimonial
From Ina Roy-Faderman: “All I ever wanted was to reach out and touch another human being not just with my hands but with my heart.” ― Tahereh Mafi, Shatter Me Like a lot of writers, I’m a bit of a...
August Poetry Postcard Fest Official Call Year Ten
The August Poetry Postcard Fest was initiated in 2007 by poets Paul Nelson and Lana Ayers. 2016 marks the tenth year of the fest and this is your official call. Directions to participate in the fest...
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.