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
The Sacramental Aspect of Habitation
“And that is what a poet Is, children, one who creates Sacramental relationships That last always.” - Kenneth Rexroth Aside from the signature, this is how Rexroth ended his epistle “Letter to...
Happy Birthday Danika Dinsmore
A happy birthday today to SPLAB Co-Founder Danika Dale Dinsmore, who co-founded the SPLAB project with me in 1997 (not to be confused with the organization that now uses SPLAB as its name.) In her...
Hillman City Haibun (Walkin’, Lichen)
As I noted in my last haibun post, walks = poetry. If you do not get a poem when walking, you have not walked long enough. Ask Charles Reznikoff, who was well-known for taking walks of 15 to 20...
After The Japanese 33-36
It was interesting when first meeting San Francisco poet Kevin Killian, whose name I would occasionally see on the SUNY-Buffalo poetics listserv years before social media would allow us to keep...
Hillman, Columbia City Lit Crawl
The pub crawl is a tradition that goes back to the 19th century. A group gets together and drinks in a series of bars. Maybe the participants are new to a town. In Australia they had over 4,000...
Hillman City Haibun 5 (White Cat Privilege)
It's the odd experience successfully translated into language that often makes a good American Sentence. A long walk can yield a sentence or two, but having the daily practice helps with perception...
After the Japanese 29-32
Today, the next segment of the 100 poems written using each poem in the classic Japanese poetry anthology (Ogura Hyakunin Isshu (小倉百人一首)) as a prompt. These were also written at a short retreat at...
José Kozer Interview
This past January 18 and 19 (2015) I had the great pleasure of going to Hallendale Beach, Florida, and having access to the great Cuban-American poet José Kozer in the home he shares with his wife...
Hillman City Haibun 4 (Sleep, Crackers)
It's a toss-up for the best American Sentence this week. Yesterday's pertains to a new health condition, or at least a new diagnosis. Today's comes from a source who said she did not write it, but...
After The Japanese 25-28
In this stretch of the project of writing inspired by the classic Japanese poetry anthology, I start in memory and move to the time about a year ago when I was the guest of Gerry Cook and Hannah...
Andrew Schelling Interview (The Facts at Dog Tank Spring)
I have known Andrew Schelling since he and Anne Waldman visited the original SPLAB in Auburn in 1997, giving a reading there 6 days after their dear friend Allen Ginsberg died. I have interviewed...
Ian Boyden’s Name as Fundamental Pattern (Reads from A Forest of Names)
This post has been updated to include video from the January 22, 2021 talk: I met Ian Boyden about ten or so years ago through our mutual friend Sam Hamill and we'll always be marked by that...
A Reading of Projective Verse
This post has been edited to include video of the reading of the seminal Charles Olson essay Projective Verse: It was October 1995 and I had just finished lunch with Michael McClure, the day I met...
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.