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
Cascadian Zen at Village Books April 21, 2024
We hope to see you at Village Books in Bellingham for a reading of Cascadian Zen. Sunday, April 21, 2024 from 2-4pm.
Deluxe Edition of Cascadian Zen Volume I
The first printing of Cascadian Zen Volume I: Bioregional Writings on Cascadia Here and Now has sold out and a deluxe edition is available. Proceeds...
Zach Charles Poetry Postcard Fest Video
Poetry Postcard Video by Zach Charles Poetry Postcard Fest board member Zach Charles made a video discussing why he loves PPF and reading a Postcard...
CPL at Mapes Creek (dxʷwuqʷəb)
The Cascadia Poetics Lab is thrilled to be working with a community group here in Rainier Beach that seeks to create greater awareness of e creek...
Obituary for Postcard Poet Marit Saltrønes
Obituary for Postcard Poet Marit Saltrønes: Marit Saltrønes (Chris Ness)April 25, 1954 - January 2, 2024 Late in the evening of January 2, Marit...
This Damned Time Change (By Ina)
From PPF Board Member Ina Roy-Faderman: Oh, I hate this time change, harbinger of longer days. For me, summer is rough. I thrive in the cool and the...
Leggy Brucker- Poems for my mother
Poems for my mother by postcard poet Allegra Brucker Poetry Postcard Festival veteran Allegra Brucker shared this beautiful video Poems for my...
Tessa Hulls Interview Feeding Ghosts
Tessa Hulls and I met when she donated a poster for the 2013 edition of the Allen Ginsberg Open Mic Poetry marathon. On February 20, 2024 I caught...
Support the Cascadian Prophets Podcast!
The Cascadian Prophets Podcast Needs Support! Since 1993, Paul Nelson and Cascadia Poetics Lab have produced over 700 hours of interview programming...
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
Announcing the 1st Annual Charles Potts Poetry Award
Announcing the 1st Annual Charles Potts Poetry Award! The Charles Potts Poetry Award is a new award that will yearly present a writer with the...
Location Card-Nation Narration by Amy Friedman
From postcard poet Dr. Amy L. Friedman: Some time before I knew I’d be coming to Japan I signed up for the 2025 Cascadia Poetics Lab Poetry Postcard...
CPL Granted Community Accelerator Grant from ArtsFund
Cascadia Poetics Lab is excited to share that we are a recipient of a 2025 Community Accelerator Grant Fund by Allen Family Philanthropies and...
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 Jane Falk and Mary Paniccia Carden on the book Joanne Kyger: A Poet in Place and Time
Jane Falk and Mary Paniccia Carden are co-editors of the anthology Joanne Kyger: A Poet in Place and Time, a new book of essays examining the work of the longtime Bolinas, California resident poet. Conducted October 5, 2024.
Podcast (prophets-podcast): Play in new window | Download (Duration: 33:15 — 45.7MB)
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.


































