Life as Rehearsal for the Poem and Poetics as Cosmology 2026 Workshops
A five week online (Zoom) workshop best suited for continuing participants and more experienced poets (open to open form) in workshops facilitated by Cascadia Poetics Lab and Poetry Postcard Fest Co-Founder Paul E Nelson. Participate in reading and discussion of foundational essays, interviews, listening and other assignments, as well as spontaneous poetry composition exercises. In Winter 2026, we’ll explore a short history of Cascadian poetry, touching on:
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- Theodore Roethke
- Fred Wah
- Daphne Marlatt
- George Bowering
- Mary Norbert Kõrte
- John Olson
- Phyllis Webb
- Stephen Collis
- Sharon Thesen
- Barry McKinnon
- Cedar Sigo
- George Stanley
- Robin Blaser
Life as Rehearsal for the Poem (LARFP)
- Sundays 3-5 PM PDT
- March 29, April 5, 12, 19, and 26, 2026
Poetics as Cosmology (PAC)
- Thursdays 3-5 PM PDT
- March 26, April 2, 9, 16, and 23, 2026
Cascadia Poetics LAB Blog
Cascadia Poetics Lab in Cumberland
Cascadia Poetics Lab in Cumberland On August 22-24, 2025, Cascadia Poetics Lab's sister organization Rain Shadow Poetics Lab is hosting Language and...
PPF Donor Workshop June 11
PPF Workshop for Donors! Postcard season is coming up soon! As a thank you to our dedicated postcard poets and generous donors, we are hosting an...
2025 PPF Open House VIDEO
PPF 2025 Zoom Open House On Wednesday, May 28, we hosted an open house via Zoom to talk all things Poetry Postcard Fest! Paul and I were joined by...
Where Do You Find Postcards?
From PPF committee member Sally Hedges-Blanquez: Where Do You Find Postcards? Your home: During Covid lockdown I made postcards from cereal and...
June 8 4-7 Postcards from Mapes Creek
Postcards from Mapes Creek on June 8! Join us on June 8, 2025 from 4-7 PM at Mapes Creek for a community poetry postcard gathering! At the mouth of...
Postcards for Prisoners
From Judy Kleinberg: We had an excellent discussion of writing to incarcerated people last night in the Zoom Room. Hosted by Zach Charles and...
Sam O’Hana on How to Support Working Class Poets
Allen Ginsberg earned $701 dollars in 1956 from Pacific Greyhound Lines and yet he had plenty of time to dedicate to his true calling, that of poet...
Postcards from Mapes Creek June 8
Postcards from Mapes Creek on June 8! Join us on June 8, 2025 from 4-7 PM at Mapes Creek for a community poetry postcard gathering! At the mouth of...
Seattle Author Tessa Hulls Wins Pulitzer Prize
Seattle author, illustrator and adventurer Tessa Hulls has won a Pulitzer Prize for her graphic memoir, Feeding Ghosts! The memoir dives into 3...
Two versions of what will be basically the same workshop to discuss the concept of the daysong, how to accomplish one and what it means to the poet who pulls it off.
Thursday, January 22, 2026 3-5 PM PDT
Monday, January 26, 2026 3-5 PM PDT
Workshop Cost: Free, with optional donation of $20-$100.00 (On Zoom)
Cascadia Poetics LAB Blog
Zach Charles CPL Letter of Recommendation
In celebration of winning a Humanities Washington Award, we are sharing the letters of support and recommendation provided by CPL staff and...
Support the CPL Annual Fund for Giving Tuesday!
Support CPL for Giving Tuesday! It's that time of year again! As the weather chills and the days grow shorter, it is vital to soak in every moment...
CPF9 Saturday Afternoon Reading VIDEO!
CPF9 Saturday Afternoon Reading On October 11, 2025, we continued he 9th Cascadia Poetry Festival with an afternoon reading. Matt Trease facilitated...
The Poetry Postcard Fest is an annual 56-day experiment in spontaneity and community building. This literarary event is a self-guided workshop in spontaneous composition where people sign up to send 31 original poems on postcards to folks on a participation list before the end of August. The fest was initiated in 2007 by poets Paul E. Nelson and Lana Ayers, and has grown to include poets participating worldwide. Registration opens annually on September 1.
Sharon Thesen “…off on an angle”
The 9th Cascadia Poetry Festival is happening October 10-12th, 2025 at the Rainier Beach Community Club. One of the featured poets is Sharon Thesen, a legendary B.C. poet who considers herself a “Cascadian poet.”
Podcast (prophets-podcast): Play in new window | Download ()
Our current media landscape seems hooked on a doom loop, an apocalyptic dream of human self-annihilation from collapsing nation states and anarchy to climate change to AI terminators, to genocidal warmongering. In order to avoid going down with that ship, we, as humans, are going to need to flip the script, to learn to think differently.
Click this link for more information about the workshop Thinkingwith: Writing Strategies for Reconnecting to Earth.
Sundays 3-5:00 PM Pacific Time
February 15, 22, March 1, 8, and 15, 2026
thinkingwith: writing strategies for reconnecting to earth
Our current media landscape seems hooked on a doom loop, an apocalyptic dream of human self-annihilation from collapsing nation states and anarchy to climate change to AI terminators, to genocidal warmongering. In order to avoid going down with that ship, we, as humans, are going to need to flip the script, to learn to think differently.
Click this link for more information about the workshop Thinkingwith: Writing Strategies for Reconnecting to Earth.
Sundays 3-5:00 PM Pacific Time
February 15, 22, March 1, 8, and 15, 2026
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We recognize that our home office is on the ancestral homeland of the Duwamish, Muckleshoot and other Coastal Salish tribes. Our dedication to bioregionalism is to co-exist on this land in the sacred manner as practiced by the traditional ways of these indigenous people.
Statement on Ahimsa by Board Member Jason Wirth
January 20, 2021
The (Poetry Postcard Fest) and the Cascadia Poetry Festival (are) connected… When you’re writing poetry… part of poetry is the craft… rules (to be understood) in a variety of contexts… (Craft is…) a necessary but not sufficient condition. You’re also… experiencing your mind, at a very deep level. And that mind as you experience it more deeply, is not in a vacuum… It’s now and here… rooted in the socio-economic and ecological conditions that make it possible. And participating in… the spiritual exercise of these postcards, is already entering into… a deep bioregional awakening and conversion. In a way we’re trying for something like a spiritual revolution, and that poetry is not just an interesting thing that you can do, if you like. It’s a fundamental exercise of being here in a less harmful way… it’s a deep ahimsa, a deep practice of non-harming and cultivation. And so, it’s all connected… And… our ambition is… trying to have a mind that would be capable, of being in this place in a better way… We’re going to live or die, by how we come down on these issues going forward.


































