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
Nate Mackey at UW Bothell
I went to hear Nate Mackey this evening (Wednesday, Sept 30) at the UW and I strongly encourage Puget Sound area literature fans to attend his reading and conversation Thursday, Oct 1 as part of the...
511. Postcard Fragrance
This 2015 August Poetry Postcard Fest poem continues the “being as comedian” thread from the last poem, makes a reference to a direction in a prompt I saw online and alludes to some of the more out...
EBSN Brussels
The 4th European Beat Studies Network is happening in Brussels 28-31 Oct and as reported before, I will be attending and presenting. My talk is: Buddhism, Hua-yen, Latihan and American Sentences...
510. Divine Comedian
This poem was inspired by something said in a talk given by Muhammad Subuh Sumohadiwidjojo, the man who founded the worldwide Subud spiritual community. I have been a member since 2004. The notion...
509. Dream Anagrams
This postcard poem went overseas, so good to give it two months before posting here. I think in future years I may send to the folks overseas first so that there is time for them to receive the...
Bowering/Stanley on Cascadia
I was pleasantly surprised to be tagged on Facebook in a post that promoted a podcast by New Star Books of Vancouver. The podcast featured two elders of the Cascadia poetry community, Vancouver...
508. Crater Glacier (Power Animal)
The largest category of (August Poetry Postcard Fest) cards I send out, in terms of the image, feature Coastal Salish art. I think this is one of the world’s most potent artistic traditions, on a...
After The Japanese (End)
I had no idea when I started this series that it would end with me writing poems about my Father's death on Mother's Day 2014. And so it goes. I am grateful to have a process that allows me to, yes,...
507. Goodbye Queets
Poem #2 in the 2015 August Poetry Postcard Fest. (Audio here.)
After the Japanese 95-98
Near the very end of this series of 100 poems my Father died. (May 11, 2014) I'd not experienced much death in my life to that point and Dad died in his bed and not in some hospital, which made me...
Paul @ 60 (You Are Invited)
It was 30 years ago when I was rather new at creating public affairs radio interviews, at age 29, when I had Dr. Bill Mitchell on the program discussing How To Live to 120: Bill made it to 60 and I...
Cascadian Zen
What is the nature of the bioregion known as Cascadia? How is this insight expressed by the people who live, work, practice, and play here? Is there a connection between Zen practice, broadly...
Samthology: A Tribute to Sam Hamill
by Paul E Nelson (Editor), Cate Gable (Editor), Lyn Coffin (Editor) A tribute to Sam Hamill in verse, essays and an exclusive interview, edited by Paul E Nelson, Ian Boyden and Cate Gable. Poems in...
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.
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