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
483. Iniciador
My poems written in Mexico in August are starting to arrive at their intended destinations and so I continue with the posting here. The last few lines from this poem are taken almost verbatim from a...
The Postcards I Got
At last count, forty poetry postcards came my way as part of the 2014 August Poetry Postcard Fest. Having just completed its eighth year, the fest is an effort to build community, to allow...
Stephen Collis, Cascadia Po Fest Closing Reading
One of the high points for me at the 2nd Cascadia Poetry Festival May 2014, at Seattle U and Spring Street Center in Seattle, was hearing Stephen Collis read. He may be the quintessential Cascadia...
482. Corset Warrior Armor
This is the first of my poems written in Mexico for the 2014 August Poetry Postcard Fest. For more details on all the postcard poems I wrote in 2014 see this page. This poem, like many in Mexico,...
Postcards From the Wilderness
I got back yesterday from a short (annual) backpacking trip to the Olympic National Wilderness. I have tried each year to recreate a 1995 experience of visiting the Olympic Mountains, specifically...
481. Dispatch From the Fringe
This is the second of two intentional collage poems I wrote during the 2014 August Poetry Postcard Fest. (More on all my 2014 postcard poems here.)
480. More Dead Air
Inspiration for this poem came, in part, from a dream.
479. Girl w/ the Green Hair
Subud LGBTQ Youth Movement
One of the most memorable events at the recent 14th Subud World Congress in Puebla, Mexico, was a meeting centered around the acceptance (or lack of it) in the Subud community. Keep in mind our next...
478. Hipster Cancer
McClure’s 88th (A Zoom Reading/Tribute)
This is an update of the post that was used to promote the Zoom reading of the 1995 poem Dolphin Skull by Michael McClure. It was recorded 12N, Tuesday, October 20, 2020. My thanks to Amy Evans...
Ian Boyden Interview (A Forest of Names)
They are 108 poems that “illuminate a hidden landscape in the names of children killed in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake.” Many of their deaths could have been prevented if not for the shoddy...
A Fly Landed
I missed out on Rattle's Poets Respond AGAIN!
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.