Cascadia Poetics LAB
Empowering people to practice poetry & deepen connections to place, self & the present moment.
We believe that poetry is the nexus at which self-knowledge, bioregionalism and expansive creativity converge. Cascadia Poetics Lab is a vibrant community whose workshops, festivals, and opportunities for connection can open the door to transformative experiences.
Poet, translator, editor, Zen Buddhist, co-founder of Copper Canyon Press, and activist for Poets Against (the)War, Sam Hamill devoted his whole life to the practice of writing poetry. The following topics are foundational for this generative workshop: how ancient poetic traditions still define quality poetry, the Beat poets, the long poetic sequence, poetry as political, and the role of reflection and emotion. Facilitator Katie Sarah Zale is writing a biography on Hamill’s life and legacy.
Saturdays 2-4:00 PM Pacific Time
February 8 – March 8, 2025
Sam Hamill’s Narrow Road to the Interior
Poet, translator, editor, Zen Buddhist, co-founder of Copper Canyon Press, and activist for Poets Against (the)War, Sam Hamill devoted his whole life to the practice of writing poetry. The following topics are foundational for this generative workshop: how ancient poetic traditions still define quality poetry, the Beat poets, the long poetic sequence, poetry as political, and the role of reflection and emotion. Facilitator Katie Sarah Zale is writing a biography on Hamill’s life and legacy.
Saturdays 2-4:00 PM Pacific Time
February 8 – March 8, 2025
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.
This lab will focus on writing strategies, applicable for poetry or prose, for breaking the spell that objectifies and cuts us off from the earth and from place and all the living beings that we (often) obliviously live in relationship with. We’ll do that by intentionally widening the socially-imposed conventions of “normal” perception via some minor alterations to our daily writing practices.
Sundays 3-5:00 PM Pacific Time
February 23 – March 23, 2025
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.
This lab will focus on writing strategies, applicable for poetry or prose, for breaking the spell that objectifies and cuts us off from the earth and from place and all the living beings that we (often) obliviously live in relationship with. We’ll do that by intentionally widening the socially-imposed conventions of “normal” perception via some minor alterations to our daily writing practices.
Sundays 3-5:00 PM Pacific Time
February 23 – March 23, 2025
Cascadia Poetics LAB Blog
CPF7 Sunday Readings
Watch the CPF7 Sunday closing readings! On October 8, 2023, we closed Cascadia Poetry Festival 7 with a viewing of the Heavy Lifting film, a film adaptation of Felicia Rice and Theresa Whitehill's...
Robert Bringhurst Interview Part 3
The third and final part of my October 22, 2023 interview with Robert Bringhurst is presented here today and will be part of the upcoming book Cascadian Prophets: Interviews 1999-2023. The book will...
CPF7 Saturday After Party!
Listen to the CPF7 After Party readings! Following our multiple Cascadia Poetry Festival 7 presentations on Saturday, October 7, 2023, many participants congregated at Vermillion Bar in Capitol...
CPF7 Saturday Night Readings
Watch the CPF7 Saturday Night Readings! To close out our second day of Cascadia Poetry Festival 7, poet, teacher, astrologer and CPL board member Matt Trease hosted readings by Andrew Schelling,...
Alice Glover Interview
Alice died today, December 23, 2023 so we are re-posting this interview as Alice heads to postcard heaven. Goodbye dear poet. The 2022 fest is winding down and registration for 2023 begins on...
Cascadian Zen Mini Tour Highlights
Highlights from the Cascadian Zen Vol. I Mini Tour! In celebration of the release of Cascadian Zen Vol. I published by Watershed Press, Cascadia Poetics Lab embarked on a mini-tour of readings and...
Cascadia Poetics LAB Blog
31 Days Event in Ellensburg, WA
Inland Poetry Presents: 31 Days Join Inland Poetry in Ellensburg, WA on Saturday July 20, 2024 from 4-6 PM for a postcard poetry event! Poets Jillian Calahan and Rachel Karyo will share strategies...
Colleen Hein: Getting Ready for Poetry Postcard Fest
Getting Ready for Poetry Postcard Fest From Postcard Poet Colleen Hein: I’m simultaneously nervous and excited to send postcard poems to thirty-one strangers. The most important rule? Write the poem...
Postcards for Richard
Caring Bridge for Richard Osler “Did you know, a quick comment can boost morale by 28.2%”— Caring Bridge Longtime Poetry Postcard Fest participant Richard Osler has been diagnosed with Stage Four...
Lorna Dee Cervantes Interview (April on Olympia)
Lorna Dee Cervantes Interview on April on Olympia
Podcast (prophets-podcast): Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:12:25 — 99.5MB)
Poetry Postcard Fest
An annual 56 day self-guided workshop in spontaneous composition and community-building.
Poetry Postcard Fest
An annual 56 day self-guided workshop in spontaneous composition and community-building.
Thank you
for an enormously sucessful 8th Cascadia Poetry Festival! Make plans for Cascadia Poetry Festival 9 at the Hugo House and other venues October 3, 4, and 5, 2025.
!
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.