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
Vancouver/Victoria Make It True Readings
2016 marks Year Four in a twenty year cultural exploration of the Cascadia bioregion. The methodology is poetry and several projects are coming to fruition. Here are some key events in that effort:...
A Subud New Year’s Eve
520. Devil Wrestling
It seems as if “demons” or the “devil” is a thread that ran through this year’s fest for me. “Nafsu” is a related Indonesian word that might better be better translated as “lower forces.” Not...
Southern Cascadia Poet Jerry Martien
In September 2015 I had the chance to interview a poet and long-time bioregionalist Jerry Martien on the waterfront in Eureka, California. With Jim Dodge, he's one of the two poets from extreme...
34. Eighty-Seven Remarkable (or Fun) Things about Paul E Nelson Sr. &/Or Charles Olson on What Would’ve Been their 87th &/or 105th Birthdays, Dec 27, 2015.
34. Eighty-Seven Remarkable (or Fun) Things about Paul E Nelson Sr. &/Or Charles Olson on What Would’ve Been their 87th &/or 105th Birthdays, Dec 27, 2015. A remarkable thing is that Pop...
Cheryl Seidner & the Wiyot Tribe in Eureka, CA
Cheryl Seidner is Cultural Liaison and Councilwoman for the Wiyot Tribe in Humboldt County, California. She agreed to an interview and on September 8, 2015, we sat down in her home to discuss the...
519. Needs of the Market
On this 2015 August Poetry Postcard there is photo of the Chief after whom the city I live in is named. Is there another major American city that so directly honors its indigenous heritage? If yes,...
Hallelujah, the Poetics of Music
(For Columbia City Gallery Literary Series, Dec 13, 2015) “We study the self to lose the self. Only when you forget yourself can you become one with all things.” - Dögen Some brief thoughts about my...
Tronald Dump
I know these posts can be seen as click bait, but there is something weird and particularly USAmerican about all the fuss being made about our favorite Grandson of a Pimp and Bait-racer, Tronald...
518. Stankbeard
More Salish art in this latest 2015 August Poetry Postcard and a reference to yet another plant species identified this summer. It really DOES smell like peanut butter, but beards are entirely...
Beat Breath for EBSN
I am delighted to continue my association with the European Beat Studies Network again this Sunday, as part of their 2021 Zoom conference. I am also delighted to present on the topic of Beat Breath...
Seriality (A 2022 Workshop:
In this workshop we take the methods and the organismic stance toward poetics (& life) and continue to investigate how to deepen one’s own work and life through spontaneous writing, rituals,...
Notes for American Sentences Talk to Haiku Koma Kulshan
Thanks to C.J. Prince and John Green of Haiku Koma Kulshan, I was invited to give a talk about American Sentences on Saturday, October 9, 2021 via Zoom to their Haiku group. I was given some topics...
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.