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
How to Resist Occupying Forces
In the U.S. Federal Government shutdown, created by the power a relatively small group of Congressmen have on one of the two main political parties in the U.S., has parallels to other occupying...
Government Shutdown/Biosphere Shutdown
In my last (non-postcard) post, I made reference to a review in B.C. Bookworld about a book on climate change from a Canadian author who foresees the huge invasion in Canada of USAmerican "climate...
470. Lowell Murphree, Ellensburg, WA – Relentless Meow
(click here for audio)
469. Elyse Brownell, Boulder, CO – Fennel or Nasturtium Blossoms
(click here for audio)
American Exceptionalism and Canadian Reality
If there were any doubt that the notion of American Exceptionalism were a joke, or a hoax, or a myth easily busted, the current shutdown of the federal government by a group of congressmen...
468. Matt Trease, Seattle, WA, Nerve Endings and Rainstorms
(click here for audio)
467. Linda Clifton, Seattle, WA – Expanding the Substance of Experience
(click here for audio)
92. Galactic Circuit (for Will Alexander)
Writing Projects
Am preparing for my first featured reading in a while, Tuesday night, October 1 at 7pm at the Duvall Visitors Center, 15619 Main Street, Duvall, WA. (See this site.) I am to read for 25-30 minutes...
466. Joe Chiveney, Olympia, WA – The Empty River
(click here for audio)
Some Notes on the Minuses
I was having a discussion with an elder poet about a poetry experience that I had recently which left me feeling outside. The funny thing is that's where I want to be. I can't do anything but...
Song Cousins
My regular open mic (sorry Peter, but "mic" is short for microphone and "Mike" is short for Michael) EasySpeak Seattle has been on hiatus since February AND WE BOOKED SO MANY COOL FEATURED POETS and...
Benefit Reading for the Community of Writers at Sq— Valley
I am delighted this week to participate in the Community of Writers at Sq--- (virtual) Valley. Virtual because of the ongoing (& well-founded) concern regarding the novel Coronavirus. There are...
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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