Cascadia Poetics LAB
Empowering people to practice poetry & deepen connections to place, self & the present moment.
We believe that poetry is the nexus at which self-knowledge, bioregionalism and expansive creativity converge. Cascadia Poetics Lab is a vibrant community whose workshops, festivals, and opportunities for connection can open the door to transformative experiences.
Poet, translator, editor, Zen Buddhist, co-founder of Copper Canyon Press, and activist for Poets Against (the)War, Sam Hamill devoted his whole life to the practice of writing poetry. The following topics are foundational for this generative workshop: how ancient poetic traditions still define quality poetry, the Beat poets, the long poetic sequence, poetry as political, and the role of reflection and emotion. Facilitator Katie Sarah Zale is writing a biography on Hamill’s life and legacy.
Saturdays 2-4:00 PM Pacific Time
February 8 – March 8, 2025
Sam Hamill’s Narrow Road to the Interior
Sam Hamill’s Narrow Road to the Interior
Poet, translator, editor, Zen Buddhist, co-founder of Copper Canyon Press, and activist for Poets Against (the)War, Sam Hamill devoted his whole life to the practice of writing poetry. The following topics are foundational for this generative workshop: how ancient poetic traditions still define quality poetry, the Beat poets, the long poetic sequence, poetry as political, and the role of reflection and emotion. Facilitator Katie Sarah Zale is writing a biography on Hamill’s life and legacy.
Saturdays 2-4:00 PM Pacific Time
February 8 – March 8, 2025
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.
This lab will focus on writing strategies, applicable for poetry or prose, for breaking the spell that objectifies and cuts us off from the earth and from place and all the living beings that we (often) obliviously live in relationship with. We’ll do that by intentionally widening the socially-imposed conventions of “normal” perception via some minor alterations to our daily writing practices.
Sundays 3-5:00 PM Pacific Time
February 23 – March 23, 2025
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.
This lab will focus on writing strategies, applicable for poetry or prose, for breaking the spell that objectifies and cuts us off from the earth and from place and all the living beings that we (often) obliviously live in relationship with. We’ll do that by intentionally widening the socially-imposed conventions of “normal” perception via some minor alterations to our daily writing practices.
Sundays 3-5:00 PM Pacific Time
February 23 – March 23, 2025
Cascadia Poetics LAB Blog
Holding Meaning Lightly
In 2017 the great Zen poet Norman Fischer had this Facebook post: Poems are not necessarily supposed to do you any good. People think that poems have some meaning embedded in them and that the...
Margaret Lee’s Old School Postcard Habit
From Margaret Lee: My kids think I am hopelessly antiquated for sending email and actually reading the messages in my inbox every day. But when I double down on the whole retro mode and mail...
Zach Charles: Lessons from Last Year, Intentions for 2023
From Zach Charles: I would like to take this space to do two things. One: reflect on lessons from last year’s fest. Two: set some intentions for myself for this year's fest. My first thought upon...
The Postcard as Bread or…
...It’s the vehicle for getting the offering to other poets. (from Sally Hedges-Blanquez) Here are a few things I’ve learned in the 5 years I’ve been a postcard poet: ● Postcards can be made from...
Five Ways to Become a Postcard Pro
From Judy Kleinberg: If you’re a newcomer to the Poetry Postcard Fest, you may be uncertain about the “right way” to do this crazy thing of writing and sending poems on postcards. Let me just assure...
LITTLE BOOK, BIG FILE
The Poetry Postcard Fest is my most consistent experience with what Paul (Paul E Nelson, founding director of Cascadia Poetics Lab and co-founder of the postcard fest) calls “practicing...
Cascadia Poetics LAB Blog
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 Poem! Watch the video below! Registration for PPF...
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 that comes out of the ground south of legendary...
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 died in her apartment at Pike Place Market. Marit’s...
Brenda Hillman Interview In A Few Minutes Before Later
Brenda Hillman interviewed on her 2022 book In A Few Minutes Before Later by Paul E Nelson for the Cascadian Prophets podcast
Podcast (prophets-podcast): Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:00:30 — )
Poetry Postcard Fest
An annual 56 day self-guided workshop in spontaneous composition and community-building.
Poetry Postcard Fest
An annual 56 day self-guided workshop in spontaneous composition and community-building.
Thank you
for an enormously sucessful 8th Cascadia Poetry Festival! Make plans for Cascadia Poetry Festival 9 at the Hugo House and other venues October 3, 4, and 5, 2025.
Thank You to Our Partners and Alliances:
!
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.