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.
Bernie Sanders or dxʷshudičup
It is a quintessentially Seattle story, given that indigenous people in this city have a higher profile than in most U.S. (lower 48) towns. Maybe being named after a great Chief also has something...
529. Imagine Somalia
One bummer about Seattle August is the “tradition” of the Blue Angels. Others have written more eloquently about the need to stop this pathetic display of militarism. I am with them and the people...
Reading/Career Counseling Event
Never thought I'd write THAT blog post title, but there you go. And it's another opportunity for you to BUY A COPY of American Sentences and hear how one remarkable flute player interprets various...
Happy 4th Birthday Ella Roque Nelson
Happy Birthday today, March 17, 2016, to my youngest daughter Ella Roque. She got her first taste of chicharrones this week and here's a little poem inspired by her actions this morning. Maybe it...
528. Prayers & Street Chorizo
Yes, demons were a sub-theme of my work in the 2015 August Poetry Postcard Fest. More demons, another memory of the 2014 Subud World Congress in Puebla, Mexico, and an illusion to los feos...
World Poetry Day
World Poetry Day is March 21. Don't feel bad, I did not know that either and it has been apparently been happening since 1999. One company is offering a cup of coffee on that day in exchange for an...
Birthday Anagram for Solihin Thom
I have a YUGE amount of gratitude for my current state of health and joy to the man who suggested I investigate the spiritual practice of the Latihan Kejiwaan of Subud, Solihin Thom, who celebrates...
Left, Egalitarian Validation
How do you know if someone is a vegan? They'll tell you. I'm not a vegan, but when I first heard the phrase Left Egalitarian, it registered as quite accurate to describe my politics. (I've linked to...
Postcards for Peace
I participated in the first World Peace Poets postcard project this past February, after being invited by Carla Shafer. Rather than post every poem I wrote, I have put together a page which will...
FLEXIBLE MIND THIS CLOUD IS A LIFE
I have been fortunate to facilitate online workshops since Fall 2020. It is one of the great personal developments of the pandemic restructuring that we're experiencing right now and, of course, if...
Michael McClure Archives Simon Fraser University
On Friday, November 12, 2021, Adelia MacWilliam and I visited the W.A.C. Bennett Special Collections Library at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, B.C. to investigate the extensive Michael McClure...
RIP Pat Martino (Observer of environment, including guitar)
Thirteen months ago I started facilitating workshops again and I never knew how much joy and inspiration could come from engaging people at a deep level via Zoom poetry workshops. And before I get...
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.