The Cascadia Day Poetry Explosion, organized by Andy Engelson of Cascadia Journal and Cascadia Democratic Action was a brilliant evening of creative language and community. In his Cascadia Journal report, Andy wrote:

Last night’s Cascadia Day celebration of poetry at Vermillion on Capitol Hill in Seattle was a fun, moving, and profoundly inspiring event. Thank you to Vermillion for hosting, and to poet and Cascadia Poetry Festival organizer Paul Nelson for bringing together such a talented group of poets. Many heartfelt thanks to all who read: Paul Nelson, Matt Trease, Nadine Maestas, Rhea Melina and special guests Mateo Quispe and Robert Lashley… Last night felt like good medicine, a respite from the daily stream of bad news, fascism and corruption I slog through every day to give you this newsletter.

Andy is beginning to bang the drum for governmental autonomy in Oregon and Washington and there was a NY Times reporter at the event Monday night, so it will be interesting to see what spin comes out of this from the mainstream national media.

I read from The Singing Bullets of Soft Secession: & Other DaySongs which will be published this summer by Carbonation Press. I prefaced my comments with a notion from Charles Olson: “It comes to this: culture displacing the state.” Olson argued that the modern state had become oppressive, stifled genuine personality and local connection. Rather than a traditional nation-state, he envisioned an ancient Greek-style polis—a self-sustaining, community-driven network of individuals focused on shared, tangible goals and ethical stewardship of their environment. True culture, grounded in physical place, human scale, and creative breathing, naturally outgrows and replaces top-down government.

A pipe dream? Better than the A.I./data-center/surveillance capitalism dystopia we’re experiencing.  Andy is on to something with his efforts and I hope to create more such evenings with Cascadia Democratic Action.

A shout out to Vermillion which supports poets in an increasingly hostile environment for poetry in Seattle. 

Check out Cascadia Journal, as Andy is very much tapped in to the bioregional undercurrent which has always supported justice and environmental wisdom: https://www.cascadia-journal.com/thank-you-for-an-amazing-cascadia-day-new-trains-furries-at-the-opera/