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:
-
- 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
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...
CA Conrad’s Ritual to Ward off Intrusions
CA Conrad's Intrusion Ritual at CPF8 On Sunday, November 3, 2024, we closed out the 8th Cascadia Poetry Festival with a reading and ritual by poet...
Celebrate Giving Tuesday with Cascadia Poetics Lab!
Support Cascadia Poetics Lab's Programming! TODAY, December 3, 2024 marks Giving Tuesday, the national day of giving in which organizations around...
Introducing Cascadia 2050!
Introducing Cascadia 2050, CPL's Youth Initiative! Cascadia Poetics Lab has recently established Cascadia 2050, previously referred to as the Youth...
Zach Charles Releases First Book With Carbonation Press
Zach Charles releases first book of poetry, 24 Portraits at 24! Cascadia Poetics Lab volunteer and audio assistant Zach Charles has released their...
Support Cascadia Poetics Lab on Giving Tuesday!
Support Cascadia Poetics Lab! November 1-3, 2024, we hosted a beautiful 8th Cascadia Poetry Festival at the Hugo House, Neukom Vivarium and Spring...
Celebrate Cascadia Poetics Lab on Giving Tuesday!
Celebrate CPL on Giving Tuesday Dec. 3! We thank all participants and attendees at the recent 8th Cascadia Poetry Festival. We hope to stage this at...
CPF8 Thanks
We will begin the process of documenting and reporting on all of the developments from the 8th Cascadia Poetry Festival on this blog in the next few...
CPF8 Sunday!
CPF8 Sunday Schedule The 8th Cascadia Poetry Festival begins TOMORROW! We can't wait to celebrate poetry and place in Cascadia with everyone! Gold...
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
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...
CPF9 Panel 1 VIDEO!
CPF9 Invocation and Panel Video! On October 11, 2025, we started the second day of the 9th Cascadia Poetry Festival with a invocation, land...
After Hurricane Melissa: Rebuilding the Kindred Community
Provide assistance for Jamaican community members affected by Hurricane Melissa From Staceyann Chin, poet and founder of Kindred on the Rock, an...
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.
Interview with Paul Nelson on the Poetry Postcard Fest
Sam Hamill said “Over the past decade or so, no one has done more for poetry in the Pacific Northwest than has Paul Nelson.” With the Poetry Postcard Fest, now in its 19th year, that influence is spreading well beyond the Cascadia bioregion and all over the world.
Podcast (prophets-podcast): Play in new window | Download ()
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
!
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.

































