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
473. More Listening Than Longing
Here is the 3rd postcard poem from this year's fest and my 473rd overall since the postcard fest started in 2007. I love the Levertov quote to begin this poem. How many times do we hear poems that...
472. Dos Rodillas Artificiales
My second poem from the 2014 August Poetry Postcard Fest was inspired by a dream and by my ongoing investigation into how my body responds to certain negative thought patterns. The card is a photo...
More on Trip to Puebla, Mexico
Am going though my recent journal entries to note the significant events during my recent trip to Puebla, Mexico. As I posted last week, I traveled to Mexico to attend the 14th Subud World Congress,...
471. Killing Gato
This is the first poem I wrote for the 2014 August Poetry Postcard Fest. It was inspired by a renewed plunge into Carla Bley's landmark album Escalator Over The Hill. (Audio. Pdf.) If you listen to...
Frida’s House (fotos)
I am back now for two full days from my first Subud World Congress, which was staged in Puebla, Mexico, August 1-17. People are cutting me off in traffic, I notice how irritated I get when people...
Reflexiones desde Puebla, Conversation Cafe
I've always known the quote as: "Travel is the worst enemy of ignorance" but in researching Mark Twain it appears to be: "Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness." Well, you get...
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...
Paul O Ingram, Rick Rouse (The World is About To Turn)
One can look at one’s Twitter feed, or watch the news to understand how dark things are right now in USAmerica, but if the old cliché is true, that it is darkest before the dawn, we’re in for a...
(Seriality (A Workshop)
(Serialty (A Workshop) four weeks, February 7-28, 2021 via Zoom. $128.50 ($94 for Canadians) (includes paypal fee) to pen@splab.org. https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/splabman In this workshop we will...
A Poet’s Obituary of Diane di Prima
Thank you Journal of the Plague Year for publishing this: My November 1999 interview with Diane di Prima: https://paulenelson.com/interviews/diane-di-prima-intervie/ Other Interviews:
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.