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
BC Poet Jamie Reid Dead at 74
Waiting in the garden on a hot day for a friend and our bike ride, I perused Facebook only to see the news that Vancouver poet Jamie Reid had died at age 74. The news came via his wife Carol on his...
Interview with Eric Tingstad
For over 30 years Seattle guitarist Eric Tingstad has been recording and performing in Cascadia and around the world. Often with his collaborator Nancy Rumbel, with whom he was awarded a Grammy in...
After The Japanese 73-76
The latest in this series of 100 poems with references to: https://depts.washington.edu/uwbg/gardens/wpa/witt_winter.shtml https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaysia_Airlines_Flight_370...
Sharon Thesen on Re-Wilding (Re-Worlding)
In the year 2001, after the tragic events of that September, and only about five years under my belt as a curator/facilitator of events featuring visiting poets, I had the good fortune to organize a...
SW Road Trip Haibun: Holiday in Quemado
The road has its own demands. Make plans, the road reserves the right to laugh. Hail. Close. Be patrolled with USAmerican religious trooper zeal and yet you go 80+ under sun & big sky. You can't...
Bringhurst on Cascadia
I've re-watched the video of the panel on which Robert Bringhurst participated at the recent Cascadia Poetry Festival. This was the third iteration of the fest and was staged in Nanaimo, BC, April...
After The Japanese 69-72
The poems after more than a year now, seem so out of place when viewed from this "heat wave" point of view. (84 now as I write, which is over 78, the temp at which Seattleites tend to gripe.) And...
Joanne Kyger Reads Easter & Other Poems
Joanne Kyger Interview in Bolinas, CA, Memorial Day, 2015 One of the major women poets of the SF Renaissance, Joanne Kyger was born in 1934 in Vallejo, CA, studied with Pound scholar Hugh Kenner at...
Amalio Madueño in Taos
The purpose of my recent (massive) road trip to the SW and back was to visit Amalio Madueño, who has lived there since the early 90s. I met him in the late 90s when I attended three consecutive...
Duwamish Revealed
Ever since Greg Bem arrived in Seattle from Philadelphia he has been a literary dynamo, presenting and participating in events that are rich in imagination, well-conceived and have added depth to...
McClure Memorial
Amy McClure sends this note: Dear Friends and Family, Looking forward to seeing you! Details are on the Eventbrite link below. Please register if you’ll attend:...
Larissa Lai Iron Goddess Interview
I was pretty stunned when Larissa Lai was the feature at Planet Earth Poetry in Victoria, BC, a few months ago. Her use of Haibun is a very dense, playful and rich language gesture, but the...
Gigs, Interviews & Postcards
So much happening. The new abnormal is near! Anarchist librarian poet Greg Bem has organized yet another of his creative, interdisciplinary events and this one is IN PUBLIC! He is apparently not...
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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