Paul E Nelson presenting at Cascadia Poetry Festival 8, photo by Leszek Chudzinski
Paul Nelson’s ongoing honing of the Day Song poetry event has produced some of the most lively and consequential verse of our time. How else write about the calamities and demands and mental/emotional/political consequences of the materialist apocalypse upon us, than an ongoing poesis of awareness and participation the anti-form the Day Song provides? Truly a praxis of proprioception and of Olson’s demand to “keep it moving…
– Sharon Thesen, Cascadian Poet/Scholar from B.C.
Cinquains
SO, World Poetry Day is under way and my 8am lecture is in the bag. We had an inspired participant who took on the task of writing a Cinquain, a five line poem with a syllable structure of...
Paul Interviewed by Ethelbert Miller
I was delighted to be interviewed today by legendary poet, literary organizer and radio host E. Ethelbert Miller for his On The Margin show on Washington, DC's WPFW. You can hear the interview here...
Free Cup of Coffee
Did you know March 21 is World Poetry Day? Yeah, UNESCO, the cultural arm of the United Nations decided that in 1999. Julius Meinl, a European coffee-roasting company upped the ante a few years ago...
RIP Darius Brusaferro
I was fortunate enough to meet Darius Brusaferro, a long-time Subud member, at one of the first Subud Menucha gatherings I attended, perhaps 2009 or 2010. I learned today on Facebook that he died in...
Resist Much/Obey Little
I am thinking of it as the most important anthology of political poetry since Sam Hamill's "Poets Against The War." "Resist Much Obey Little: Inaugural Poems to the Resistance" is a 738 page virtual...
Once in Blockadia: Stephen Collis Interview
On my way north to the Comox Valley to assist organizers of the Cascadia Poetry Festival to be held in Cumberland, September 8-10, 2017, I stopped in Delta, BC, to interview Stephen Collis about his...
A Few Postcard Notes
I'm just about finished with the 2017 Peace Postcards project. There are 28 poets on my list and without sending a card to myself, that means I had 27 poems to write and will probably get the last...
The Road Diet Starts at My House
(Huge thanks to Marcus Green for publishing my essay on the success of the Rainier Avenue South Road Diet. Click on photo to see it on the South Seattle Emerald website along with some other...
James Baldwin Is Not…
Last Friday I saw, for the second time, the Raoul Peck masterpiece "I Am Not Your Negro." A very astute New York Times review by A.O. Scott suggests that the film utilizing the words of James...
Poetics As Cosmology in West Seattle
Thanks to the support of 4Culture, I am presenting a workshop I have been developing for a few years in West Seattle starting this Friday. 1pm, Oct 7, 21 & 28, 2022. There will be discussion,...
In Person and Online Workshops
It has become part of an annual rhythm thanks to the pandemic and the emergence of Zoom. Coming after the Poetry Postcard Fest is the workshop season. For two years it has only been online. While...
9.28.2022 @ Underbelly
Once I survived the promotional photo shoot for the Underbelly reading, I was ready for the event. I'll be part of a reading in Pioneer Square with: underbelly every last Wednesday ...
In Honor of David McCloskey “The Father of Cascadia”
David McCloskey passed away on July 3. In honor of his lifetime of work to create and spread a culture that was deeply connected to the Cascadian bioregion, Cascadian Prophets, which owes more than just its name to his work, we want to share this interview from October, 2013. Find it transcribed on our website.
To listen to the original audio of this interview, click here.
Check out more of what the Lab does here, and listen to more current and archival podcasts on Spotify or on our website.
In Honor of David McCloskey "The Father of Cascadia"
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.