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
A Journal of the Plague Years
I like to think of it as projective journalism. Maybe it's becoming a lost art to write and publish history with deep perception hours after events happen, but Susan Zakin and her crew at Journal of...
DaySong Miracle (Past 62) Profiled on SICA-USA
I was delighted to see the SICA-USA blog post written about my new book DaySong Miracle (Past 62). I knew it was coming, but to read the way my Subud brother Jim O'Halloran handled the information...
Memory’s Vault (book)
I had the good fortune last Sunday (May 19) to be invited to participate in a reading at Memory's Vault to celebrate the publication of the Empty Bowl book Memory's Vault: The Poetic Heart of Fort...
Larry Lawrence at Jack Straw
Writing a blurb for a friend or associate's book is a difficult task. One has to be compelling, has to have some credibility regarding knowledge of the book's content and has to have a call to act,...
DaySong Miracle (Past 62)
From Greg Bem in Spokane, WA: Greetings from Spokane! I am pleased to announce the third release from Carbonation Press: Paul E. Nelson's DaySong Miracle (Past 62). This small book is available...
Interview with Bill Porter on Dancing with the Dead
Here is the video version of my March 25, 2024 interview with Bill Porter on "Dancing With the Dead: Red Pine and the Art of Translation." We talked about his life, the movie and the film which...
Zoom Interview with Nicholas Gulig on Lorine Niedecker
Imagine growing up a poet in a state like Wisconsin and having to travel to Colorado to learn about the work of Lorine Niedecker, and furthermore to have one’s own consciousness changed by...
Typewriter Poems on Request at SAM’s Remix (Crush)
With my friend, the poet Samar Abulhassan, I'll be typing spontaneous poems on demand for people attending the Seattle Art Museum's popular Remix, Friday, March 29, 2024 from 7-10pm. Really, this...
Lesley University COS 24 Talk
Lesley University COS 24 happens March 29, 2024 and I will give a talk on my graduate education and what has developed since then. COS stands for Community of Scholars and I am proud to be one,...
Red Pine Documentary
The last time we reported on Bill Porter (aka: Red Pine) we had traveled to his Port Townsend home for an interview. See: https://paulenelson.com/2019/10/14/red-pine-bill-porter-interview/ Now he's...
Poetry Postcards and Zen
An amazing testimonial for the Poetry Postcard Fest though it was not intended to serve that purpose. It is from Kosho Itagaki of Temple Eishoji (where I sit three days a week.) He writes: 🚤...
Matt Trease Interview The Outside
Matt Trease moved to Seattle, became a postcard poet, has long helped run the Margin Shift reading in Seattle, has been a board member of the Cascadia Poetics Lab for 8 years and is my good friend....
Kosho, Basho, Sam, Michael
If you did not know, I participated in the Jukai ceremony on December 11, 2023, under the direction of Kosho Itagaki, at Temple Eishoji in Rainier Beach. I took refuge in the Buddha, the dharma and...
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.