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
More Walking the Arboretum with Jim Demetre
A second and, hopefully, shorter post about my walk with Jim Demetre at Washington Park Arboretum. What a place this is and late winter is one of the most inspiring times to go, giving those who...
Walking the Arboretum in Winter with Jim
Each morning I look over last year's journal entry for the same day and it had been a year since I walked through Washington Park Arboretum with Jim Demetre. Jim's an amateur botanist whom I met...
Shave and a Slight Cut, $10K
So I have to tell the story of finding out about my surgery date for the two, count ‘em, TWO hernias I have being diagnosed with. (A bilateral inguinal hernia and an abdominal hernia.) I got a call...
Featured Reading Wedgwood Ale House
Peter Munro has been kind enough to invite me to be the featured poet at his fine open mic in Wedgwood on Monday, February 11, 2013. I will be reading some classics, some American Sentences, some...
Residency at the Morris Graves Foundation
It was the most intensive residency application I have ever seen. Two letters of reference to be sent directly to the foundation. An essay outlining my thoughts on the significance of at least two...
John Olson 1999 Interview
John Olson is the author of Eggs & Mirrors, from Wood Works Press; Swarm of Edges, from BCC Press; and Logo Lagoon, from Paper Brain Press in San Diego. His poetry has been published in numerous...
Modern Jihad: Tracing the Dollars Behind the Terror Networks
Loretta Napoleoni is an economist, political analyst, journalist and author of Modern Jihad: Tracing the Dollars Behind the Terror Networks. We caught up with her in late 2003 to discuss her book....
Emily Kendal Frey Aug 2010 interview
I am posting interviews from a feature I did on innovative Northwest poets for Rattapallax Magazine in Fall 2010. One of my favorite Cascadia poets is Emily Kendal Frey, the author of AIRPORT (Blue...
Up a Creek with Brett Nunn
Today I found out I will require bilateral laparoscopic inguinal hernia surgery. Ugh. Not a fan of surgery but quickly becoming a fan of Project Access NW, which has determined that I am eligible...
Dementia Blog – Susan Schultz
Susan Schultz is a poet, critic, publisher and Professor of English at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Her focus is modern and contemporary poetry, American literature, and creative writing. She...
Write On Door County Sept 2019 Residency
I'm near the end of my week-long writing residency at Write On Door County. Postcard poet Sharon Auberle tipped me off to this writing center in the part of Wisconsin that sticks into Lake Michigan....
Happiness & Spirituality
my friend Jason Wirth is producing a couple of worthwhile events: Happiness & Spirituality How the concept of Gross National Happiness intertwines with Vajrayana Buddhism Lopen Gem Dorji (Gembo)...
The Cards I Got (APPF13 2019)
I have been holding off on taking and posting my annual picture of poetry postcards received during this year's August Poetry Postcard Fest. If I counted right, I got 62 cards: This is a shot taken...
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.