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
August Poetry Postcard Fest
The final list is out and 302 poets have joined us for the August Poetry Postcard fest this year. There are poets from Alabama, Alaska, Alberta, Arizona, Australia, British Columbia, California,...
American Sentences-June, July
I told this story on Facebook last week: After a ride on the 358, I get where John Burgess is coming from with his Aurora bus updates. I sat down in the back row next to this guy who started talking...
Tin Umbrella Suggests Hillman City’s Coming Up
Mer and I moved from Columbia City to Hillman City in October 2011. The neighborhood just south of Columbia City, it's still more diverse than Columbia City and (as of this writing) has none of the...
Notes on The Practice of Outside: Robin Blaser’s Divine Real
Notes on The Practice of Outside: Robin Blaser’s Divine Real (pdf) Before I knew Robin Blaser’s work, I knew of Robin Blaser, having found out about him through my early poetry investigations of...
Penultimate Postcard Update
I got the latest postcard update from Brendan McBreen (see below) with the new list of 243 people, easily a new postcard record! Am a little stunned and very excited about the fest and (as noted...
Brian Love Memorial
I attended the Memorial for Brian Love at the Auburn Adventist Academy Church yesterday (7.17.13) and recorded the service. (Hear the audio of the first half by clicking here. The 2nd half starting...
Postcard Update
The man coordinating the list for the 2013 August POetry POstcard Fest, Brendan McBreen, informs us that 179 poets have signed up so far and the cut off date is less than two weeks away. (His update...
Writing or Re-Writing
I was fascinated to see a post from one of my Facebook friends, Jim Andrews, linking to a piece in the Boston Globe about how the practice of extensive revision of one's writing is a 20th Century...
Brian Love Update
As I posted on the SPLAB blog* last week, Brian Love, a longtime SPLAB volunteer and all-around handyman, was killed by a drunk driver on July 5th. The man accused of the crime, Floyd Gonzales, will...
90. Slow Down Tahoe Driver (For Brian Love)
Three Memorials for Judith Roche
On December 24, 2019, the Seattle Times published its obituary for Judith Roche. An excerpt: “My basic thing is that poetry is approaching the holy and it’s a translation of the sacred and it says...
PoPo Interviews
I am looking to interview at least ten postcard participants in the next few weeks to create some videos for a new PoPo website that will replace the current page on my cluttered personal site....
Make it True meets Medusario Review
Thank you Paul Constant, at the Seattle Review of Books, for the kind and (I think) perceptive review of an anthology I had a hand in bringing into the world. Make It True meets Medusario is indeed...
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.