This will be the third workshop aiming to demystify the process of writing poetry, and, as the CPL and Cascadia 2050 missions say, “empower people to practice poetry…”
Click this link for more information about the workshop I Want to Write a Poem (But Don’t Know How)
Saturday December 12, 2026, 3-5:00 PM Pacific Time
Cost: free, suggested donation $25.
I Want to Write a Poem (But Don’t Know How): A Cascadia 2050 workshop
I Want to Write a Poem (But Don’t Know How): A Cascadia 2050 workshop
This will be the third workshop aiming to demystify the process of writing poetry, and, as the CPL and Cascadia 2050 missions say, “empower people to practice poetry…”
Click this link for more information about the workshop I Want to Write a Poem (But Don’t Know How)
Saturday December 12, 2026, 3-5:00 PM Pacific Time
Cost: free, suggested donation $25.
Poetry as Neuro-Resilience
Explore practices that help keep consciousness attuned to the realities of the world – and discover how poetry can emerge from that depth. In this five-week workshop, Paul E. Nelson guides participants through readings, interviews, journaling, and writing exercise rooted in the Cascadia bioregion. All levels are welcome; openness and a commitment to the practice are all that’s required.
Learn more about Poetry as Neuro-Resilience →
Suggested donation: $130–$275
Saturday Cohort
Saturdays 9-11 AM Pacific Time
November 21, 2026 – December 19, 2026
Sunday Cohort
Sundays 3-5 PM Pacific Time
November 22, 2026 – December 20, 2026
Cascadia Poetics LAB Blog
Cascadia Poetics Lab wins a Humanities Washington Award!
Cascadia Poetics Lab and founder Paul E. Nelson won a Humanities Washington Award! Thanks to a nomination by Katie Sarah Zale and magnificent...
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CPF9 Friday Night Keynote Reading VIDEO
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An Implicate World, Unfolding…
An Implicate World, Unfolding...by David McCloskey A 2017 philosophical-poetic meditation by David McCloskey, creator of the Cascadia map. To learn...
Postcards from Elya Braden
Postcards from PPF 2025 Poet Elya Braden! Below are gorgeous postcards and poems created by 2025 PPF poet Elya Braden. Thank you so much for sharing...
Register for 2025 LARFP and PAC workshops!
Register for Fall 2025 Life as Rehearsal for the Poem and Poetics as Cosmology! Fall 2025 Life as Rehearsal for the Poem and Poetics as Cosmology,...
Submissions for Reed Magazine
Submit to Reed Magazine by Nov. 1 California's oldest literary journal is accepting art submissions for their 159th issue! Free and paid submissions...
CPF9 Highlights!
CPF9 Highlights! We had an amazing time at the 9th Cascadia Poetry Festival, Oct. 10-12, 2025! It was amazing to see so many new and familiar faces...
Cascadia Poetics LAB Blog
Last 2026 Poetry Postcard Activation June 6 11a-1pm
Our last Poetry Postcard Activation of the year is set for Saturday, June 6, 2026, at Pritchard Beach. We'll have postcard collage supplies, a...
Every Death Hurts (Josh Massey on Barry McKinnon)
I met Barry McKinnon at a Gwillim Lake Writing Retreat near Tumbler Ridge in 2008. This is north of Prince George, maybe six hours west of Edmonton...
I Want to Write a Poem (But Don’t Know How): A Cascadia 2050 workshop
On Saturday, June 27, from 3 - 5pm, Cascadia 2050 will be hosting a workshop titled: I Want to Write a Poem (But Don't Know How). Cost: free,...
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Poetry Postcard Fest 2026
Registration is closed
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.
Aldon Nielsen on Choruses for Gil Scott-Heron
Aldon Lynn Nielsen says the time is right to say it straight, Gil Scott-Heron should be recognized as an important writer. As the George and Barbara Kelly Professor Emeritus of American Literature at Penn State University, specializing in, among other things, African American poetry and poetics, Aldon Lyn Nielsen has published several books of his own poetry, along with scholarly books and anthologies such as Black Chant: Languages of African-American Postmodernism, and his recent essay: Choruses for Gil Scott Heron.
Check out more of what the Lab does here, and listen to more current and archival podcasts on Spotify or on our website.
To get original poetry right in your mailbox this summer, check out the Poetry Postcard Fest.
Podcast (prophets-podcast): Play in new window | Download (58.6MB)
In Honor of David McCloskey “The Father of Cascadia”
David McCloskey passed away on July 3. In honor of his lifetime of work to create and spread a culture that was deeply connected to the Cascadian bioregion, Cascadian Prophets, which owes more than just its name to his work, we want to share this interview from October, 2013. Find it transcribed on our website.
Listen to more current and archival podcasts on Spotify or on our website.
In Honor of David McCloskey "The Father of Cascadia"
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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.