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
American Sentences June-Oct
The latest harvest of 17 syllable poems from my daily discipline. See more about the form at www.AmericanSentences.com and thanks for reading. Comments welcome. 6.26.14 - Driving 34 a cherry pit’s...
491. Uncommon Speech
This 2014 August Poetry postcard was written in Puebla, Mexico, while I was there to attend the 14th Subud World Congress. 491. Uncommon Speech is one of my favorite postcard poems from 2014. It...
Review of PN & DB’s Existential Trio
I met Dick Metcalf last night at Rhythm & Rye in Olympia, WA, before the gig I did with Dan Blunck's Existential Trio, featuring Steve Bentley and Ariel Calabria. He wrote a kind review that you...
490. Bronzing Mexican Air
Another 2014 August Poetry Postcard Poem written in Puebla, Mexico, when I was attending the 14th Subud World Congress. Again a reference to Pablo Vargas Lugo and the exhibit at Museo Amparo.
489. Bandera de la Mariposa
489. Bandera de la Mariposa is a reference to an exhibit at Museo Amparo in Puebla, Mexico that was running during the recent Subud World Congress. A beautiful museum in a restored colonial...
Poetry & Music (Paul Reads with Blunck)
What does it mean when the Existential Trio is actually a quartet? What happens to poems when they are read with music backing? Do they become songs? I've been very fortunate to have some excellent...
488. Hold the Thorns
Sam Hamill and Christopher Yohmei Blasdel
Please join us Saturday, November 1, 2014, at 7:30, for an evening of poetry and music as Sam Hamill and Christopher Yohmei Blasdel are reunited for one evening at Spring Street Center, 1101 15th in...
487. Sin Carne
This poetry postcard was written August 11, 2014, also at the 14th Subud World Congress. The Bhakti referenced is Subud Portland Co-Chair Bhakti Watts whose name means "devoted one."
Climate March, Poetry & Proprioception
I was delighted to learn that in addition to a Subud couple from Portland, my friend Stephen Collis also traveled to New York to participate in the huge Climate March on September 21, 2014. His...
Letter for Diane di Prima Park
30-December-2020 LaMonte Bishop City of San Francisco Parks & Recreation lamonte.bishop@sfgov.org To the Honorable LaMonte Bishop, I am writing to urge you to rename Page-Laguna Park in SF:...
Diane di Prima Solstice Poem
Thank you Leggy Bruck for this: And di Prima fans should know about this: Rename Page-Laguna Mini Park to Diane DiPrima Park Why is this important? PETITION to Rename Page-Laguna Park as “Diane di...
My Personal Universe Deck
What's good for the goose... It was about 20 years ago (2000?) when I first learned about Michael McClure's concept of a Personal Universe Deck and 8 years ago when I took some of my retreat time at...
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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