Poetry Postcard Activations
Free Poetry & Community Events in Rainier Beach!
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
Anne Tardos on Cascadian Prophets
I am grateful today to bring you an interview with Anne Tardos on Cascadian Prophets, reading from and speaking about her newest book: The Always...
Winter in America at AWP
On March 27, 2025 join us in Los Angeles for an off-site AWP conference event for Winter in America (Again! Join poets Rodrigo Toscano, Elizabeth...
Postcards from Where I Have Never Been by Margaret Lee
From PPF Committee Member Margaret Lee: Last year, my theme for the Fest was Postcards from Where I Have Never Been. I was tired of reality and...
Nature Talk by Flávia Rocha Release Event
Nature Talk by Flávia Rocha Release Event On February 23, 2025, Carbonation Press, led by Greg Bem, hosted a release event for their recent...
Nature Talk by Flávia Rocha virtual launch
On Sunday, 23 February, 2025, Brazilian poet Flávia Rocha launched her new book, Nature Talk, published by Carbonation Press, on Zoom with poets and...
Cascadia 2050 at Seattle University
On February 21, 2025, Zach Charles and I (Veronica Martinez) visited Seattle University to talk about Cascadia 2050, CPL's youth initiative, to one...
CPF8 Issei Zen Panel Video
We opened our second day of the 8th Cascadia Poetry Festival on Saturday, November 2, 2024 with a panel entitled "Issei Zen & Other Migrations."...
Support the Poetry Postcard Fest!
The season for postcards is approaching, and Cascadia Poetics Lab needs your support for another year of postcards and poetry! The Poetry Postcard...
Readings from Winter in America (Again at Seattle U
On Tuesday, 4 February 2025, I was honored to take part in the first public reading of Winter in America (Again. This anthology, published by...
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)
Daysong Workshops 2026
Cascadia Poetics LAB Blog
Tim Mateer Postcard Workshop VIDEO
On November 22, 2025, Cascadia Poetics Lab hosted an online workshop with longtime postcard poet Tim Mateer for early registrants of the 2026 Poetry...
Winter in America (Still Workshop VIDEO!
Your Blues Ain't Mine Workshop Video On November 16, 2025, Paul Nelson, Roxi Power and allia abdullah-matta, three of eight Winter in America (Again...
Jason Wirth CPL Letter of Recommendation
In celebration of winning the Humanities Washington Award, we are sharing the letters of support and recommendation provided by CPL staff and...
Poetry Postcard Fest 2026
Early Bird Registration
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.
Matt Trease Interview (The Outside)
A couple years back I steered a kayak over the stone remnants believed to be of that dammed weir and felt the tears of Southwind and his grandmother that broke the spell of ice and separation. In a moment I felt that wheel turning me, releasing the grief over my own people, still a mystery to me from centuries of migrations, of imperial assimilation, erased by the cold wind of empire and science and the myriad attempts to dam up the natural world with standardized time, supply chains, and rows and rows and rows of repeatable little boxes we stuff our brains and bodies into.
Podcast (prophets-podcast): Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:09:38 — 95.6MB)
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
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.