Paul E Nelson presenting at Cascadia Poetry Festival 8, photo by Leszek Chudzinski
Paul Nelson’s ongoing honing of the Day Song poetry event has produced some of the most lively and consequential verse of our time. How else write about the calamities and demands and mental/emotional/political consequences of the materialist apocalypse upon us, than an ongoing poesis of awareness and participation the anti-form the Day Song provides? Truly a praxis of proprioception and of Olson’s demand to “keep it moving…
– Sharon Thesen, Cascadian Poet/Scholar from B.C.
Whalen, Zen and Postcards
Thanks to Sam Hamill's suggestion, I have been reading Crowded by Beauty a biography of Beat Poet and Zen Monk Philip Whalen by David Schneider. Am loving it and finding it a great companion and...
Zen, BLM Shuts Down Bernie
I was at the Bernie Sanders rally yesterday (8.8.15) in downtown Seattle's Westlake Center where he was interrupted a second time by protestors from #BlackLivesMatter. And I get why it is...
After The Japanese 83-86
"The poem beats you down the street*" when the poem is written as an act of discovery. It's part of the joy of an open form. The prophecy in this batch of poems from the series I've been posting for...
Barry McKinnon Interview
To start a poetry culture in a town that had none before your arrival and to have that community continue while you have nothing to do with it, sounds a lot like MY story. There was a short-lived...
Postcard Feedback
I know what you are thinking. Don't put any more energy into things like this, but my strong sense of justice is begging me to respond. So, after changing another dirty diaper from my 3 year old and...
Susan McCaslin on Robin Blaser
Susan McCaslin has a wonderful piece that was posted yesterday to the Cascadia Poetry Fest blog: Trailblazing with Blaser by Susan McCaslin (pdf) From the moment I heard Robin Blaser lecture in my...
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...
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...
Jeanne Heuving on Nate Mackey Destination Out
Jeanne Heuving is the editor of a fascinating new book of scholarship on one of the most important poets of our time, Nate Mackey. The book is entitled Nathaniel Mackey, Destination Out: Essays on...
David Stephen Calonne: Diane di Prima Visionary Poetics & The Hidden Religions
Interview with David Stephen Calonne, author of Diane di Prima: Visionary Poetics and the Hidden Traditions, Recorded via Zoom, Sunday, June 6, 2021, 1:30pm Diane di Prima, who died in October 2020:...
In Honor of David McCloskey “The Father of Cascadia”
David McCloskey passed away on July 3. In honor of his lifetime of work to create and spread a culture that was deeply connected to the Cascadian bioregion, Cascadian Prophets, which owes more than just its name to his work, we want to share this interview from October, 2013. Find it transcribed on our website.
To listen to the original audio of this interview, click here.
Check out more of what the Lab does here, and listen to more current and archival podcasts on Spotify or on our website.
In Honor of David McCloskey "The Father of Cascadia"
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.
Check out more of what the Lab does here, and listen to more current and archival podcasts on Spotify or on our website.
To get original poetry right in your mailbox this summer, check out the Poetry Postcard Fest.