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
Nan’s Poetry Postcard Fest Binder
From PPF participant Nan Jackson: After sending my 31st postcard (32 counting the extra one to Peggy Miller's new address), I put together this...
I’m a Late Batch Mail Postcard Poet
From Kim Tedrow, PPF Participant: I first participated in the Poetry Postcard Fest in 2019. I'm also a mixed-media artist with an embarrassing hoard...
DaySong 2024
DaySong 2024 on September 1 The DaySong is a poem written in a 24 hour period (or the 16 or so hours you’re awake during a 24 hour period). The...
Cascadian Zen on Quadra Island Event
August 26 Cascadian Zen on Quadra Island A launch of Cascadian Zen Volume One with readings by Jan Zwicky, Robert Bringhurst, Paul Nelson, Jason...
Zach Charles Mid ’24 PPF
From PPF Committee Member Zach Charles: Yet again, while reflecting on the Poetry Postcard Fest, I am drawn to the way the project can reveal the...
A Weekend of Cascadian Zen: Cumberland
Watershed Press celebrates the Cumberland launch of Cascadian Zen Volume I August 24 & 25, featuring talks by poets, philosphers, and an...
This Fest is For the Birds
This Fest is For the Birds From PPF committee member Margaret Lee: I arose this morning before the full moon had set. Driving west and then south en...
Cascadian Zen: Mountain Zen Rain Community Event
August 22, 2024 Cascadian Zen: Mountain Zen Rain Community Event A talk and reading with the three editors of Cascadian Zen Volume One, Paul...
18th Poetry Postcard Fest Stats
Updates and Stats for the 18th Poetry Postcard Fest We hope you are all enjoying the 18th Poetry Postcard Fest! This year, we celebrate a RECORD...
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
Register for 2025 LARFP and PAC workshops!
Register for Fall 2025 Life as Rehearsal for the Poem and Poetics as Cosmology! Fall 2025 Life as Rehearsal for the Poem and Poetics as Cosmology,...
Submissions for Reed Magazine
Submit to Reed Magazine by Nov. 1 California's oldest literary journal is accepting art submissions for their 159th issue! Free and paid submissions...
CPF9 Highlights!
CPF9 Highlights! We had an amazing time at the 9th Cascadia Poetry Festival, Oct. 10-12, 2025! It was amazing to see so many new and familiar faces...
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.
Andrew Schelling on Forests, Temples, Glacial Rivers
Sanskrit translations, a deep bioregional sense of place and homages to dead (mostly) poet friends makes Andrew Schelling’s new book a compelling distillation of subjects he’s been tracking for over 40 years. Author of “Tracks Along The Left Coast: Jaime D’Angulo & Pacific Coast Culture” and “From the Arapaho Songbook” and many other titles, he lives in the mountains outside of Boulder, Colorado, and teaches poetry and Sanskrit at Naropa University. The new book is Forests, Temples and Glacial Rivers, published by Empty Bowl.
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
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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.



































