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
536. Jupiter in Virgo
Another Georgia O’Keeffe image used for this latest 2015 August Poetry Postcard and one of the shortest 2015 postcard poems mostly because of the glossy stock and the difficulty in the actual...
Rifkin Meme/ Guaranteed Basic Income
It's a Facebook meme and these are worth the paper they're printed on, but I though this one was pretty good, so I shared it. I'd seen Jeremy Rikin give a lecture at Town Hall, discussing the...
Chronicling Left Egalitarianism
The tab for a certain online newspaper article has been open on my browser since about April 15, when it was published. I moved it over from #3 to #36 today (yep, 36 tabs open right now) and have...
535. Green For Red
Another Georgia O’Keeffe image, this latest August Poetry Postcard Fest poem was sent as prayer for a postcarder in the middle of summer wildfire hell.
No Sonics & the Rising Feminine
Forgive me Sonics fans, but I view the Seattle City Council vote yesterday (5.2.16) as emblematic of everything good about Seattle. The Council voted against a sale of a city street to would-be...
533. Wait for Latté
One of the cards I brought back from my 2014’s trip to Wisconsin that was part of my work in the 2015 August Poetry Postcard Fest. This one with allusions to soul-building with a nod to an old poem...
55. Prince (R.I.P.)
55. Prince I always thought it was “cuss, fight & bleed” as the reasons one Prince Rogers Nelson cited as warnings for parents hoping to raise healthy children but “breed.” How a Nelson could do...
Postcards for Garcia
A follow up to the post about my recent trip to Taos, New Mexico. Amalio Madueño is community development specialist and brilliant poet of Yaqui and Tarahumara heritage. I am indebted to Amalio for...
532. Old as the Devil
ANOTHER devil reference in this latest of the 2015 August Poetry Postcard Fest and an image of one to boot. I love how the neighbors across the street use a pole with netting at the end to harvest...
Taos April 2016
I have just returned from Taos, New Mexico, where I was invited to read at the Jazz & Poetry event produced by the Taos Bebop Jazz Society and Analog Eric and Judy Katzman. I had first gone to...
Greg Bem Reviews Haibun de la Serna
Huge thanks to Greg Bem who has authored a five star review of Haibun de la Serna. CINCO ESTRELLAS in the immortal words of jazz pianist Elisha Gullixson. Greg writes on his blog and on Goodreads:...
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...
How does one make literary art about this time in history that avoids rhetoric and facile political positioning in this era of the spectacle? How does one avoid being consumed by the simultaneous collapse of so many systems — some being eviscerated by people in positions designed to protect such systems? Deborah Poe has some idea based on her submission to the upcoming anthology Winter in America (Still.
Deborah is the author of several books of poetry including keep, Elements, and Our Parenthetical Ontology, as well as a novella in verse, Hélène. Her visual works–video poems and handmade book objects–have been exhibited throughout the US. She lives on stolen Coast Salish land, specifically the ancestral homeland of the Duwamish, Suquamish, Stillaguamish, and Muckleshoot People.
Check out more of what the Lab does here, and listen to more current and archival podcasts on Spotify or on our website.
To get original poetry right in your mailbox this summer, check out the Poetry Postcard Fest.