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
Interviewing the Interviewer: Paul E Nelson
My appreciation goes out to Melissa Lemay, who turned the tables and interviewed ME about doing interviews, American Sentences, the Poetry Postcard Fest and Allen Ginsberg, among other topics. That...
Announcing En*trance Journal
(Image: “Inga” (Detail) 65 x 85” acrylic on canvas, c.2012 © Frank Galuszka) I'm delighted to be an Editor-at-Large for a new journal out of Northern California called En*trance. It can be...
Postcards from Mapes Creek June 8 4-7pm
I hope you'll consider coming to Rainier Beach this Sunday from 4-7pm to celebrate the arts of poetry postcards and our little urban stream that we hope someday will be totally daylighted. What...
Sam O’Hana on Opening Poetry to the Working Class
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...
Poetry at Cascadia BioFi
Cascadia BioFi is happening Saturday May 17, and the Cascadia Poetics Lab will be presenting poetry with no admission charge at 7pm. The conference: "will bring together leaders at the edges of...
Four Winter in America (Again readings
There are some benefits to having 8 editors of an anthology. It is 8 times the networking capacity. This is the case this week for the ongoing creative resistance to the current USAmerican...
Matt Trease The Outside
I've known Matt Trease since he moved to Seattle in 2013. He's from Tennessee and has spent time in Ohio, Milwaukee and Chicago, and left his academic track just short of his dissertation. We...
AWP Readings
I am delighted to participate in two readings at AWP which in L.A. this year. One is at the Asterism booth, #750, Thursday, March 27 at 11am. Asterism has picked up much of the slack of SPD's...
Imbolc 2025 Dharma Position Daysong
I feel very fortunate to have successfully navigated another daysong, a day-long poem writing ritual. I set aside Imbolc 2025 to write, as that pagan holiday (& celebration of return of the...
Anne Tardos The Always Already Absent Present
What a joy to interview Anne Tardos about her new book The Always Already Absent Present. The audio is online thanks to Zach Charles and here is the video, recorded March 4, 2025. My introduction:...
Ralph Towner 1940-2026
One of my greatest disappointments in life is that I never saw Ralph Towner in concert. He died today in Rome. There are many places online where you can get the details of his life and career and I...
Celebration of Koon Woon
On Wednesday night at C&P Coffee Company in West Seattle, longtime Seattle poet and publisher Koon Woon was honored by his friends, by poets who he mentored and those who love him. Here is the...
An Ocean of Time—The Poetry of Sam Hamill Set to Song
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.