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
Cascadia Poetry Festival 3 – Nanaimo
Sometimes there are events in my life that are so intense, or have so much action packed into a short time, it takes me a long time to write about them. Having founded a poetry festival for the...
After The Japanese 61-64
My sister Barb once gave me a T-shirt designed to help me remember my roots, my hometown and the pride in which those of us from the Second City have in our town. The message was the same as that...
Clyfford Still: Colville & Beyond
On Sunday, April 19, 2015, I interviewed Patricia Failing, Professor Emerita of the University of Washington about an exhibition she is curating in Denver at the Clyfford Still Museum. Clyfford...
Hillman City Haibun (Tobacco & Other Vegetables)
Maybe it's my Virgo nature that allows me to enjoy vicariously the lives of people whose work I admire but whose lifestyles have aspects I would not care to replicate. I would not say the phrase...
Jeremy Pataky at U Books
It takes a special (or odd) person to live in Alaska, especially by choice and not by birth. The long winter nights would be one reason. I can imagine how all that darkness would be hard to take....
ATJ 57-60 Language & Lilacs
It is logical that it would be a matter of time before Ella would adopt some of my better habits. All too often we're reminded of the bad ones our children take from us. You can decide whether the...
Make It True (Poetry From Cascadia)
It is still kind of hard to believe that the second of the Cascadia poetry projects I envisioned a couple of years ago is just about to manifest. Make It True: Poetry From Cascadia will be released...
Pictures of Peter Culley
For Peter Culley (1958-2015)
Pig War Poetry & Pictures
Although the gathered group was small, they were feisty enough to take on the fierce winds that greeted our Guided Poetry Walk at the American Camp on San Juan Island last Saturday (Apr 11, 2015)....
ATJ 53-56 (Death of the Imagination)
I get a kick out of certain Facebook threads and, yes, probably spend too much time there. You can argue with an idiot, but even if you win, you're only a little better than an idiot and I guess I...
Last Year’s Pandemic Postcard (Not Yet)
My practice each morning includes reading the journal entry from the same day of the previous year. For instance, today I read Monday, April 6, 2020. It was Day 24 of the Shelter-in-Place...
Wild Roof Journal Interview
I was fortunate to have been interviewed by the kind folks at Wild Roof Journal, a periodical which takes its name from a William Blake poem. We discussed the Poetry Postcard Fest, spontaneous...
Holly J. Hughes Interview
Holly Hughes is the author of Hold Fast, Sailing by Ravens, coauthor of The Pen and The Bell: Mindful Writing in a Busy World, and editor of the award-winning anthology, Beyond Forgetting: Poetry...
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.