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
Jan 2, 2026 Interview with Cornelius Eady on Proof
On January 1, 2026, a 34-year-old, immigrant, Muslim, democratic socialist mayor was sworn in to run the largest city in the United States. When...
Hello 2026!
Happy New Year from Cascadia Poetics Lab! Happy New Year! Thank you for another successful and enriching year for poetry and place in Cascadia! This...
Trevor Carolan on Making Waves: Reading BC and PNW Literature
In this edition of Cascadian Prophets, Trevor Carolan talks about Making Waves. If artists are the antennae of the race, then the poets and writers...
Dragon Tongues: The Origin of Atmospheric Rivers
Dragon Tongues: The Origin of Atmospheric Rivers from David McCloskey, designer of the Cascadia bioregion map. Learn more about David's work at the...
CPF9 Winter in America (Again Reading VIDEO!
CPF9 Winter in America (Again Reading VIDEO On October 12, 2025, we closed off the 9th Cascadia Poetry Festival with a reading Winter in America...
CPF9 Kubota Garden Reading VIDEO!
CPF9 Kubota Garden Reading On October 12, 2025, we began the last day of the 9th Cascadia Poetry Festival with a reading at Kubota Garden. We...
Postcard Poetry Group
Join the Postcard Poetry Group! Can't wait until the next PPF to start sending postcard poetry? Join the postcard poetry group! Postcard poet...
Cascadia Poetics Lab Gift Guide!
Happy holidays and happy upcoming winter solstice! We hope everyone has been able to stay safe during the cold and wet weather and enjoy a peaceful...
Communal Reading of Midwinter Day on Dec. 21!
Communal reading of Bernadette Mayer's Midwinter Day On December 21st, 2025 at Common Objects in Seattle (2601 1st Ave), celebrate the winter...
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
Daysong Workshop Jan. 22 & 25 VIDEO
Daysong Workshop Video On January 22, 2026, we hosted the first of two workshops focused on the Daysong, an exercise in dedicating an entire day to...
What Am I Of? by Sue Diewert
Sue Diewert, a poet and CPL supporter, followed the What Am I Of? poetry exercise to write the poem below. Thank you so much for sharing, Sue! Want...
Daysong Workshops THIS WEEK!
Daysong Workshops This Week! Join us for online workshops focusing on the Daysong practice of writing a poem for an entire day this Thursday,...
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.
Jan 2, 2026 Interview with Cornelius Eady on Proof
You’d expect poetry to be part of an event inaugurating such a figure and that the poem offered for the occasion would be bland, written by a committee, or full of platitudes, but the poem delivered yesterday matched perfectly the tone of a campaign that appears to be built on mutual respect, vision, human rights and empathy.
Podcast (prophets-podcast): Play in new window | Download (Duration: 36:22 — 50.0MB)
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.