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
Thinkingwith Workshop
Thinkingwith: Writing Strategies for Reconnecting to Earth Workshop Next month, we will be welcoming poet, artist, teacher and astrologer Matt...
Sam Hamill’s Narrow Road to the Interior Winter Workshop
Sam Hamill's Narrow Road to the Interior Workshop Happy 2025! This year, Cascadia Poetics Lab will be expanding our workshop offerings and welcoming...
Zach Charles Book Launch
Zach Charles 24 Portraits at 24 Book Launch! Join us for a celebration of the publication of Zach Charles' first poetry collection 24 Portraits at...
George Draffan on the Global Assault on Forests
George Draffan is a researcher, the head of the Public Information Network and the co-author of Strangely Like War: The Global Assault on Forests....
Call to Poets (Lakewold Gardens)
Hello, My name is Ricardo de la Torre and I work as Curator of Art and Music at Lakewold Gardens. We are a historically recognized public garden and...
CA Conrad CPF8 Keynote Reading
CPF8 Friday Night Keynote Reading by CA Conrad On November 1, 2024, we kicked off the 8th Cascadia Poetry Festival at the Hugo House with a keynote...
Interview with Harold Rhenisch on The Salmon Shanties: A Cascadian Song Cycle
We caught up with Harold Rhenisch at what seemed like a good halfway point between Seattle, WA and Vernon, BC, Harrison Hot Springs. After an...
Sharon Thesen releases Day Song Chapbook!
Sharon Thesen Daysong Chapbook published by broke press Iconic Canadian poet, educator and editor of Cascadian Prophets Sharon Thesen has released...
A huge thank you to our supporters!
Thank you for your support! Giving Tuesday 2024 was a success for Cascadia Poetics Lab thanks to the generosity of our supporters! This Giving...
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
CPF9 Panel 2 VIDEO!
CPF9 Creative Resistance Panel Video! On October 11, 2025, we followed the first 9th Cascadia Poetry Festival panel with a Creative Resistance panel...
Katie Sarah Zale CPL Letter of Recommendation
CPL Letter of Recommendation from Katie Sarah Zale We are still basking in the glow of the honor of receiving a Humanities Washington 50th...
Postcard Workshop with Tim Mateer!
Tim Mateer Postcard Workshop Learn about different techniques and perspectives in writing and designing postcards with longtime Poetry Postcard Fest...
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.
Rhea Miller on Cloudhand, Clenched Fist
To go back 30 years in one’s writing is an exercise fraught with the possibility that the material is very dated, but this book, Cloudhand, Clenched Fist, by Rhea Miller, is a large exception.
Podcast (prophets-podcast): Play in new window | Download (Duration: 34:59 — 48.1MB)
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.



































