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
Graham Isaac Interview, Part 2
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’...
447. Jacqueline Murray, Pittsburg, KS – Certain Snorts (Nasturtium)
(Click here for audio.)
Poems for Peace, Seattle
I have been asked to help create a Seattle edition of the Poems for Peace event that celebrates International Peace Day on September 21. Anne Padilla and I are facilitating, preparing to make this...
446. Lisa J. Cihlar, Brodhead, WI – Certain Unshakability (Blackberries)
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42 Days of August
2013 Postcard Afterword 2013 was the 7th year of the August POetry POstcard Fest overall and the 2nd year that Brendan McBreen would be in charge of organizing and distributing the list. A call went...
445. Alley Greymond, Seattle, WA – Snake Chief on the Stairs
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443. Ericka Melby, Bartlesville, OK – Alone Under Helicopters
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442. Drew Myron PO Box 914 Yachats, Oregon – Map of the P-Patch
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441. Savannah Featherstone, Victoria, BC – Not The Practice of Inside
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Tit Nun, Jilly Rizzo and American Sentences
Old pal Dick Rosetti, with whom I worked at KNDD (The End), asked me to sit in with his band Jilly Rizzo on September 14th at the Skylark Club, 3803 Delridge Way S.W. in West Seattle. They are...
A Time Before Slaughter/Pig War: & Other Songs of Cascadia
The tenth anniversary edition of A Time Before Slaughter is coming out on April 11 with a launch at Open Books. My publisher, Apprentice House, is adding a whole separate book to the new edition,...
Interview with Shin Yu Pai (Ensō)
Shin Yu Pai's new book, Ensō is categorized as a künstlerroman, an artist's novel, a class of bildungsroman or apprentice novel, that deals with the maturation of a young artist. Yet this is not...
Cascadian Zen Interview with Jason Wirth
“Cascadian Zen” is an event at Seattle University on February 14 and 15, 2020 that’s organized loosely around exploring the relationship between the Cascadian bioregion as it intersects with Zen...
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.