On the morning of Wednesday, August 14, 2013, Habib and Paul Nelson awoke before 6A and were hiking with full packs up to “Jack’s Shack.” But after an hour, maybe less, they knew they were not going to make it with those heavy packs. They dropped them and took smaller packs about 6 hours up the mountain, to get to the top of Desolation Peak. They took their sweet time, as Paul introduced Habib to mountain huckleberries and they ate almost every one they saw. By the time they hit the blueberries, at a surprisingly high altitude, they ate a few, but were motivated to get to the fire lookout and the remarkable view. It was just to the west of the fire lookout where Habib and Paul sat down and conducted their interview of his life, his work, his visit to the U.S. and his approach to poetry.

Read El Habib Louai’s poem Kerouacian Epiphanies in the Portland Greyhound Bus Station.

Listen to El Habib Louai read his poem Kerouacian Epiphanies in the Portland Greyhound Bus Station.

To hear from more politically conscious poets, check out the Resistance Panel at the next Cascadia Poetry Fest.

Find the original recordings of the interview with El Habib Louai at Desolation Peak in the audio archive here: https://paulenelson.com/el-habib-louai-in-cascadia/

Check out more of what the Lab does at https://cascadiapoeticslab.org/, and listen to more current and archival podcasts at https://cascadiapoeticslab.org/cascadian-prophets-podcast-2/.