“The PPF is right up there with watermelon, sandals, and homegrown tomatoes as far as Summer Delights go. Beauty, whimsy, candor, history, international travel.” Judy Mieger

 Dear Amazing Poet and Poetry Lover, Thank you!

You make the work of Cascadia Poetics Lab possible! Thanks to you, in August, an estimated 18,000 original postcard poems were created by participants in the Poetry Postcard Fest; in October, hundreds of poets came to Rainier Beach to tap in insight and tap out resistance at the Cascadia Poetry Festival; throughout the fall, workshops like Poet as Radio, Poetics as Cosmology, Robert Duncan’s H.D. Book and Life as a Rehearsal for the Poem led participants into encounters with the marvelous and the unknown; and throughout the year, the Cascadia Prophets podcast offered inspired interviews with bioregional artists, bringing Cascadia into commutes and dog walks everywhere! Thank you!

“Each year, l travel from Vancouver Island to Seattle with a handful of Canadian poets to attend three full days of poetry, workshops, dining, visiting galleries, and shopping. The community that has grown around the festival is inclusive, enthusiastic, and inspiring. I always leave feeling more engaged as a writer and as a person. Such good medicine for these times!”  Lorin Medley

Poetry is a powerful technology. According to recent science, reading and writing poetry improves attention and metacognition, so we can engage more deeply with our place and our present. It creates new synaptic connections and neural pathways, so we can better process emotions. It decodes the encoded unconscious, so we can open more fully to ourselves and the collective. It is the jigsaw of archetypes, allowing us to build our own custom-designed interior furniture. And it is a portal to transcendence, giving us liftoff from our stresses and small selves.

Our goal is to raise $50,000 for the CPL Annual Fund by December 31, 2025,

in order to end 2025 strong and insure a great beginning for 2026.

What is the Annual Fund?

The Annual Fund is your investment in the human and operational framework upon which everything that Cascadia Poetics Lab does depends. Our Annual Fund covers every day, ongoing operational costs like employee salaries, facility rentals and maintenance, utilities, office supplies, travel, and other overhead costs. Here is a representation of the human structure of Cascadia Poetics Lab.

Thank you! Your generous gift makes Cascadia Poetics LAB a resource for life giving connections to thousands of people throughout Cascadia and around the world. As Dan Dunphy put it:

“The Cascadia Poetry Festival is a prime opportunity to share space with many poets from Canada and the US. The poetics lab community has created a comfortable, welcoming, and inclusive celebration for all Cascadia’s Beings.”

Please show your support for Cascadia Poetics Lab by clicking the DONATE button below. Becoming a monthly donor provides predictable, reliable support. Consider donating through your Donor Advised Fund. Every gift is significant to the continued life of the community we share.

Appreciatively,

Paul E Nelson
Founding Executive Director
Cascadia Poetics Lab