Cascadia Poetics LAB
Poetry Postcard Fest
Watershed Press
Cascadian Prophets Podcast
Cascadia Poetry Festival 8
Robert Lashley

Wah, Whitehill, Lashley

February 1, 2022
Splabman
Our Imbolc/Lunar New Year, Founding Supporters reading was magnificent. BC poetry legend Fred Wah, Ukiah California’s Theresa Whitehill and Bellingham’s Robert Lashley covered a wide variety of topics and delivered some remarkable lines, some of which were caught in the chat. (See below.) Here is the video of the event in case you missed it and huge thanks to our Founding Supporters who help us create readings like this.

Become a Founding Supporter here.

18:15:16 From Diana Elser (she/her) : seeds from red clay reimagine the past –
18:16:26 From Shawna Swetech : so many great images…. winter sprouts are an underground windmill
18:16:40 From Adelia : to be a god, arbitrary but lonely…
18:16:53 From Diana Elser (she/her) : when dry bones get up walking all natural –
18:17:39 From Diana Elser (she/her) : the resignations of winter
18:18:22 From Diana Elser (she/her) : of a dream-clipped boy and his nature
18:19:18 From Ruth Marcus : Thank you, Robert.
18:19:19 From Shawna Swetech : beautiful
18:19:19 From Diana Elser (she/her) : lowered his hands in the snow
18:22:30 From Linda Crosfield : Good to hear you read again, Robert. Thank you.
18:23:38 From Adelia : the geography of hope
18:24:37 From Diana Elser (she/her) : where sorrow does not hider her dress from me, or her story
18:25:17 From Diana Elser (she/her) : you suck it up you order new paper you start over
18:25:45 From Adelia : they clear an uncanny path to the things that are most important to you
18:25:53 From Diana Elser (she/her) : a really good mistake should be….something involving new territory
18:26:29 From Diana Elser (she/her) : a partial treasure map, a symptom
18:26:32 From Carl J : A reilquary of creativity
18:26:47 From Robert Lashley : the fear of the mistake is akin to the fear of the ending of life….a keen drive to make something beautiful, even as beauty recedes…
18:26:54 From Robert Lashley : just wonderful lines.
18:27:37 From Diana Elser (she/her) : blurted out things that weren’t helpful
18:28:28 From Diana Elser (she/her) : bringing the dead treasures to make their eyes light up
18:28:35 From Robert Lashley : dear god what a poem
18:28:38 From Robert Lashley : what a poem
18:28:53 From Carl J : Awesome poem
18:28:53 From Adelia : you will speak to birds
18:29:09 From Shawna Swetech : smiles on the faces of those who have lost flesh …… what a beautiful poem!!!!
18:29:52 From Ingrid Bruck : Pet the cat/speak to birds
18:30:11 From Diana Elser (she/her) : by the fig and by the olive
18:30:23 From Ann Spiers : “Typeset the book”….that is an act of prayer and hope
18:30:51 From Adelia : lit from inside the throat of the coyote
18:30:59 From Diana Elser (she/her) : in the water we take so carelessly into our throats
18:31:06 From Carl J : Thee arms of the mountain
18:31:20 From Robert Lashley : The trail that brings you up the mountain will bring you down again….
18:31:36 From Matt Trease : the guts of prehistoric lovers
18:32:14 From Adelia : litter the road
18:32:28 From Shawna Swetech : tattered twin continents…. and so so many more. Stupendous!!
18:33:24 From Diana Elser (she/her) : bestowing and removing fragmentary bits (?) of consciousness
18:33:53 From Diana Elser (she/her) : a perfect mimicry of home
18:33:57 From Adelia : mountains shift their hips from one side to the other
18:34:44 From Diana Elser (she/her) : this is the domain of Queen Califia
18:34:50 From Shawna Swetech : diva bending over in her moist skirt, fault line showing.
18:35:35 From Shawna Swetech : rush hour traffic of the forgotten
18:36:06 From Diana Elser (she/her) : the buckling of the day under its load of blossoms
18:36:32 From Ruth Marcus : Beautiful beautiful California painted in your words, wrapped in the arms of love… the arms of life. Thank you.
18:36:36 From Shawna Swetech : OH MY GOD!!!!!!!
18:36:39 From Ann Spiers : What a rich life that brought to this poem….Cascadia to two continents….mythic and ordinary
18:36:42 From Jason Wirth : awesome Tea, thank you so much
18:36:43 From Adelia : Neruda-esque in breadth and depth
18:36:56 From Adelia : So lovely!!
18:37:27 From Robert Lashley : wow. wow. such beautiful beautiful poems
18:38:07 From Linda Crosfield : That was beautiful, Theresa.
18:38:43 From Ingrid Bruck : So passionate, Teresa. Thank you!
18:39:13 From Diana Elser (she/her) : Here’s to OLD!
18:42:31 From Diana Elser (she/her) : I see things from where I am
18:43:37 From Diana Elser (she/her) : out there is only meaningful in its correspondence to in here
18:44:10 From Diana Elser (she/her) : all of it out there is measured from in here
18:46:58 From Diana Elser (she/her) : just call the wetland back
18:47:21 From Paul E Nelson he/him/hermano : Using water this way is violent
18:47:22 From Adelia : using water this way is violent
18:48:30 From Diana Elser (she/her) : will the riparian ever be repaired
18:49:31 From Paul E Nelson he/him/hermano : Alki!
18:49:46 From Diana Elser (she/her) : soon we will talk again, by and by
18:50:17 From Adelia : eventually I will know this elastic forest
18:50:18 From Shawna Swetech : time not yet verbed….
18:50:22 From Diana Elser (she/her) : before noon I was younger
18:51:17 From Adelia : the theory of rain bends. my bardo is post mortem
18:51:25 From Shawna Swetech : my bardo is post-mortem, post-modern
18:51:27 From Robert Lashley : You use the cadences of the old testament so un-ostentaciously and effectively
18:52:58 From Robert Lashley : it creates a delicious contrast and tension in your nature poems. Saying something without SAYING it. I dig it
18:53:15 From Diana Elser (she/her) : in this between place we can all witness –
18:54:41 From Diana Elser (she/her) : the bridge between –
18:56:59 From Ruth Marcus : Thank you, Fred, for sharing your life “on the river”… “mud lake” … Dreams drowned … when will we ever learn… by and by … Thank you Fred.
18:57:07 From Ann Graham Walker To Paul E Nelson he/him/hermano(privately) : So memory is proprioceptive…..
18:57:25 From Ann Spiers : until the rice is overdone…..my rice in soup has just been described poetically. Thank you.
18:57:53 From Adelia : Thank you so much Fred. wonderful!
18:58:01 From Jason Wirth : beautiful, Fred, beautiful
18:59:32 From Larry Laurence : Thank you everyone! Good work! Unfortunately, I need to leave now. Thank you, Paul, for organizing this!
19:00:00 From Ann Spiers : Spell that for us.
19:00:13 From Linda Crosfield : proprioception
19:01:23 From Jason Wirth To Paul E Nelson he/him/hermano(privately) : Brother Paul—brilliant readings! I have to run b/c I have my next meeting. A million billion thanks! Cascadia arising!
19:02:10 From Ruth Marcus : Thank you Paul for all you contribute to poetry and poets. Your generosity of spirit is beautiful.
19:02:31 From Paul E Nelson he/him/hermano To Ruth Marcus(privately) : Bless you Ruth!
19:16:38 From Adelia : this has been so moving and remarkable.

Happy Tiger Year! Here is a writing exercise/ritual I gave to workshop participants:

https://paulenelson.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Imbolc-Rededication-with-Fire-Water-Tigers-Yosemite-Sam-.pdf

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