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
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.
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
Stephan Torre in Atlin, B.C.
What a great way to entice someone to read a book: "Like a prize-fighter boxing over his weight, Stephan Torre has long made his home in the...
2024 Annual Report
Cascadia Poetics Lab 2024 Annual Report Our 2024 report outlining Cascadia Poetics Lab's major accomplishments, fundraising and organizational...
Thankful Thursday: Curiosity & Care by Drew Myron
From postcard poet Drew Myron: After a steady stream of arrivals, my mailbox is now empty. I just completed the annual Poetry Postcard Fest, an...
Announcing the 1st Annual Charles Potts Poetry Award
Announcing the 1st Annual Charles Potts Poetry Award! The Charles Potts Poetry Award is a new award that will yearly present a writer with the...
Location Card-Nation Narration by Amy Friedman
From postcard poet Dr. Amy L. Friedman: Some time before I knew I’d be coming to Japan I signed up for the 2025 Cascadia Poetics Lab Poetry Postcard...
CPL Granted Community Accelerator Grant from ArtsFund
Cascadia Poetics Lab is excited to share that we are a recipient of a 2025 Community Accelerator Grant Fund by Allen Family Philanthropies and...
Poetry Postcard Fest ’25 Wrap Up ZoomParty
Join us on Zoom on Saturday, September 6 for the Poetry Postcard Fest '25 Wrap Up ZoomParty. We will meet at 2 pm PST and chat for 2 hours about our...
Organic Poetry Exercise for Postcard Poets
Now that the 2025 Poetry Postcard Fest is finished, we still have some writing exercises for postcard poets to continue developing your poetic...
Register for Fall Workshops!
Cascadia Poetics Lab Fall 2025 Workshops We hope everyone had a rejuvenating and sunny summer! Fall is fast approaching, which means our fall 2025...
Cascadia Poetics LAB Blog
Deborah Poe on “flagging the apocalypse pageantry”
How does one make literary art about this time in history that avoids rhetoric and facile political positioning in this era of the spectacle? How...
Carletta Carrington Wilson: Object Lessons
On view at the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art this summer is Carletta Carrington Wilson is Object Lessons. Poet/Fabric Artist/Bookmaker Carletta...
An Essay on CPL by Diana Elser
I came across this in my journal today. (See below.) Now that Diana Elser has left the board to focus on her writing, I thought it was an excellent...
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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.
Lorin Medley On the Way to Kluusms
On the Way to Kluusms is the first poetry chapbook to be published by Watershed Press, a bioregional press based in Seattle, but with strong connections to Vancouver Island. The author is Lorin Medley, whose poetry has been published in anthologies like Winter in America (Again, Cascadian Zen Volume II and Drift: Poems and Poets from the Comox Valley. Lorin lives, gardens and writes from her home in Comox, British Columbia, the unceded territory of the K’ómoks First Nation. She speaks about On the Way to Kluusms, what it means to live in place and how we disconnect from ourselves.
Check out more of what the Lab does here, and listen to more current and archival podcasts on Spotify or on our website. If you liked Lorin’s poetry, consider signing up for the Poetry Postcard Fest to have original poems sent right to your mailbox!
Podcast (prophets-podcast): Play in new window | Download (Duration: 46:06 — 63.3MB)
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.






































