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
After The Japanese 80-82
More "alternate takes" in this series which I have been serializing here and which is over 18 months old. More poems about Zappa, my late cat and my reaction. You can't see the "Z" anymore but you...
2015 Postcard Final Stats
The signup for the 9th August Poetry Postcard Fest is final and the list has been sent to all participants. The total number of participants is down from an all-time high in 2014 - 423, to 208 in...
505. The Lake’s Brain
I was taking my corridor walk June 23, 2015, and was stunned by the reflection of the sun on wavelets of Lake Washington. I tried to get a decent video capture of the phenomenon (after looking at a...
Comment from a Postcarder
I am running this comment (from this post) as a post on its own just to take time to appreciate the sentiment. It looks like the fest this year will have less than half the participants, but if the...
2015 Poetry Postcard F.A.Q.’s
A few random questions posed by participants, or would-be participants, in the 2015 August Poetry Postcard Fest. By the way, this is your last call for registration as that ends July 27 at 12:01...
Marilyn Stablein Interview
Marilyn Stablien is a Portland poet and book artist. She has lived in New York, New Mexico, the Himalayas, Seattle and is included in Make It True: Poetry From Cascadia. We sat down in her dining...
Why a Postcard Fee This Year?
I got an unsigned email this morning about the postcard fest: hello paul wondering - why is there a fee for participating now? what is done with over $4000 you would collect if over 400 sign up...
The Postcard Is…
The Owner of the Red Wheelbarrow
Being a William Carlos Williams fan, this story was a natural for me. A scholar by the name of William Logan, a professor at the University of Florida, (with help from a local historian) did the...
The Joy of Postcards
I'm back in that mode again, a time of year when poetry gets right to the front of my daily consciousness. Some who know me would argue that it is that way anyway, but during the annual August...
Hamish Todd “Interviews” Paul E Nelson
I met Hamish Todd the first time I went to Red Sky Poetry Theater. I used some language in a poem that was a little outside the regular open mic fare, but he got it and gave me a kind word. That was...
Ed Varney (A Lot of Nada)
It was Michael McClure in about 2004 who suggested I go beyond the U.S. when studying Open Form poetry. That led me to José Kozer (Cuban, though living in Hallandale Beach, FL) and poets in B.C....
Pocket Lint (A New Journal)
I have admired Warren Dean Fulton for years, maybe since I saw some of his cute little chapbooks like the U.S. Sonnets of George Bowering: That was published by Pooka Press in 2007. Warren's been on...
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.