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
Jerome Rothenberg Interview from 2001
Jerome Rothenberg was a legendary poet, translator and anthologist. His work on various poetry anthologies, including Poems for the Millennium were...
What Kind of Postcard Poet are You?
What kind of Postcard Poet are you? Take this quiz and find out! From PPF committee member Ina Roy-Faderman:Did you know that there are different...
Poetry Postcard Fest Updates!
Poetry Postcard Fest 2024 Updates! Thank you so much for registering for Poetry Postcard Fest 2024! We hope you are having an enriching and creative...
Postcards from Here Highlights!
Postcards from Here and Postcards from Mapes Creek Highlights! On July 14, 2024, we hosted our first IN PERSON Poetry Postcard Fest events:...
Press Release: CASCADIA POETICS LAB TO HOST POSTCARDS FROM MAPES CREEK EVENT
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE July 9, 2024Contact: Paul E. Nelson, pen@cascadiapoeticslab.org CASCADIA POETICS LAB TO HOST POSTCARDS FROM MAPES CREEK EVENT...
Postcards From Mapes Creek
Postcards From Mapes Creek Join us next to Mapes Creek at 4:30 Sunday, July 14, 2024, as Tim Mateer, of Austin, TX, Abhaya Thomas of Portland, OR,...
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...
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...
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...
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)
Daysong Workshops 2026
Cascadia Poetics LAB Blog
Linda Russo on the verdant
or or As the planet heats up many animal species are either headed north or going extinct. This makes the work of the poet as witness that much...
Sharon Thesen on Creative Writing and English Departments
In 2014, poet Sharon Thesen gave a talk at a Creative Writing Conference in Vancouver about the state of Creative Writing and English Departments....
CPF9 Friday Workshops!
CPF9 Friday Workshops The 9th Cascadia Poetry Festival is fast approaching! October 10-12, 2025, join us for a gathering and celebration of poetry...
Poetry Postcard Fest 2026
Early Bird Registration
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.
Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun Lets’lo:tseltun on Unceded Territories
This interview with Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun Lets’lo:tseltun was originally recorded in August of 2016, just before the first election of the 45th president of the United States of America. The conversation took place in the midst of Yuxwelptun Lets’lo:tseltun’s exhibition Unceded Territories, at the Museum of Anthropology, University of British Columbia.
Podcast (prophets-podcast): Play in new window | Download ()
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
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.