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
Un Poema para Frida Kahlo
I am experiencing my first Subud World Congress here in Puebla, Mexico, and it is stunning and miraculous. The intensity of the collected intention of 2,000 people who share an obscure (but...
Postcards & Other Spontaneous Methods
Now that the 2014 August Poetry Postcard Fest is up & running, I wanted to add a note for those new to the fest and offer a couple of possibilities to help shape a spontaneous poem and take some...
Signup Done for 2014 August Poetry Postcard Fest
The signup is now complete for the 2014 August Poetry Postcard Fest. We have 423 participants & they come from: Alabama, Alberta, Arizona, Australia, British Columbia, California,...
Final 2014 Postcard Call
Signup for the 2014 fest is over. Website Countdown Clock Countdown Widgets The original call is here and is required reading for anyone participating. To participate, send your name, mailing...
How To Write a POstcard POem (10 Steps)
I've jumped the gun on the August 2013 Poetry Postcard Fest and I encourage you to do the same. Yes, there's already a primer on how to write the postcard poem (see this) but I have taken this to be...
Poems for Peace 2014
I am planning the third Poems for Peace event on September 21 at 7PM at Spring Street Center. Last year this was the post. This was how I connected the poetry postcard fest with the Poems for Peace...
August Poetry Postcard Fest Instructions
OK poets! At this point we are one over the record 302 poets we set last year, but I am sure we'll get much past that. I have sent a list via email and am posting the instructions here as well for...
August Poetry Postcard Project, Year 8!
It is almost August once again and this means POSTCARDS! The August Poetry Postcard Project is an exercise in responding to other poets. You write a poem a day for the month of August, write it...
Community Acupuncture and the Collaborative Commons
I have been pretty inspired by a talk Jeremy Rifkin gave at Town Hall on April 7th, as it gives me hope that there is something more I can do to hasten the end of capitalism other than crawl into a...
Peter Culley’s Hammertown
The first moment I heard about Peter Culley's serial poem Hammertown, immediately I intuited that it was similar to what I was doing with A Time Before Slaughter. It would be a couple of years...
PEN POPO2020 Afterword (Postcards from the Pandemic)
In years past I have taken time on the 1st of September to write my POPO afterword. If felt like a ritual to end each extended August with a meditation on what I had done, followed by a photo or...
Iris Cushing on David Henderson and Mary Norbert Körte
Interview with Iris Cushing on The First Books of David Henderson & Mary Korte: A Research. Recorded via Zoom, Sunday, September 6, 2020, at 1pm PDT. In 1967, the first books of two poets were...
Prostate Cancer Update
I was asked by my local spiritual community, Subud Greater Seattle, for an update on my treatment for prostate cancer. An excerpt: I was diagnosed with prostate cancer on February 17, 2020 and had...
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.