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
459b. Kristen Cleage, Atlanta, GA – Full Sunflower Moon
(click here for audio)
459. Kara Synhorst, Sacramento, CA – Cost of Being
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458. Linda Lee Harper, Augusta, GA – How Many Habibs
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457. Amy Miller – Ashland, OR – A Taste of This Side
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91. Berber City Poems (For El Habib Louai)
It is a month after El Habib Louai visited Seattle, postcards composed during his visit are appearing on my blog and I am reliving the moments through the poems as if they are happening again. Part...
456. L. Lisa Lawrence, Tacoma, WA – Shooting Hozomeen
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Deconstructing For Kurt Cobain
I had a poem published in the anthology culled from featured readers at the Planet Earth Poetry reading series in Victoria. Yvonne Blomer, the series curator and co-editor of the Poems from Planet...
455. Heather Mydosh, Independence, KS – Kerouac & Moonrise
(click here for audio)
Reading to Seattle City Council
I have not made much of a big deal regarding my appearance today before the Seattle City Council's Words' Worth program, perhaps because it was going to happen in January and then a few days ago I...
Graham Isaac Interview, Parts 3-5
Graham Isaac is a writer living and working in Seattle, Washington. He holds an MA in Creative and Media Writing from the University of Wales, Swansea, where he co-founded The Crunch, South Wales’...
Documenting Pandemic
Thanks to POPO participant Linda Clifton, I learned about an essay by George Saunders in The New Yorker: A key paragraph for me: Are you keeping records of the e-mails and texts you’re getting, the...
A Time Before Slaughter/Pig War: & Other Songs of Cascadia
When the box of books arrives at your house and for the first time you hold your new book in your hand, it is quite an experience. I remember moving to Seattle in 2009 and having the first box of my...
POPO is Here (Early)
Faced with the prospect of not having any (in person) poetry readings for a while due to the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) and self-isolation for several weeks, the SPLAB Board agreed with my notion...
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.