Poetry Postcard Activations
Free Poetry & Community Events in Rainier Beach!
Postcarding & DaySinging 2026 Workshop
This session will be a presentation of how the postcard fest developed, how the daysong developed, how I prepare for the fest and how participants attending prepare for the fest, as well as how to prepare for a successful daysong. The similarities of the daysong to serial poetry could be discussed, as well as the effort to put one’s self into the open, which has benefits in one’s own life. Registration is open to all registered 2026 Poetry Postcard Fest participants for a suggested donation starting at $1, which is the lowest our CRM will allow! See: https://bit.ly/4uwpnLG
Postcarding & DaySinging
- Sunday, June 14, 3-5 PM PDT
- Open to 2026 Poetry Postcard registrants who make a contribution. https://bit.ly/4uwpnLG
Cascadia Poetics LAB Blog
Postcards at yəhaw̓’ (Indigenous Creatives Collective) in Rainier Beach
Our next postcard activation is Wednesday, April 1 at 6pm at yəhaw̓, Two seasoned postcard poets, Zach Charles and your humble narrator will talk...
Rainier Beach Arts Roundtable
In partnership with the Rainier Beach Action Coalition, the Cascadia Poetics Lab is initiating a neighborhood arts roundtable to increase the...
Rain Shadow Poetics Lab Society
The Rain Shadow Poetics Lab Society is building on the momentum of last August's events in Cumberland, BC with a workshop by Sharon Thesen and...
Lorin Medley On the Way to Kluusms
On the Way to Kluusms is the first poetry chapbook to be published by Watershed Press, a bioregional press based in Seattle, but with strong...
Bob Pyle and Jim Dott in Seattle
Two Cascadian Zen poets from central Cascadia are in Seattle, Friday, March 20, 2026, at 6:30 at Arundel Books. You can listen to our 2024 interview...
Volunteers Need for Postcard Activations + CPL News
Dear CPL Fan. I trust you & yours are well in these chaotic times. When I read that Chinese astrology refers to The Year of the Fire Horse...
Watch A POET at SIFF Cinemas 3/6-3/9!
Watch A Poet, directed by Columbian director Simón Mesa Soto, THIS WEEKEND at SIFF Film Center in Seattle! We are grateful to have received a coupon...
Rainier Beach Poetry Postcard Activations
To create greater awareness of the 20th year of the Poetry Postcard Fest AND greater awareness of parks in Seattle's Rainier Beach neighborhood AND...
Ian Boyden and Sam Hamill on Habitations
On November 10, 2012, Sam Hamill and Ian Boyden joined together to do an interview on Hamill's chapbook Border Songs, as well as Habitations, a...
Cascadia Poetics LAB Blog
An Essay on CPL by Diana Elser
I came across this in my journal today. (See below.) Now that Diana Elser has left the board to focus on her writing, I thought it was an excellent...
CPL @ ScribFest
The Cascadia Poetics Lab is delighted to participate in ScribFest, June 20 & 21, 2026, at Town Hall. From the ScribLab website: "ScribFest...
Postcarding & Daysinging (A Workshop)
Today, May 4, 2026, marks the last month of Earlybird Registration for the 20th Poetry Postcard Fest. The suggested donation will go up to $25 after...
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.
Aldon Nielsen on Choruses for Gil Scott-Heron
Aldon Lynn Nielsen says the time is right to say it straight, Gil Scott-Heron should be recognized as an important writer. As the George and Barbara Kelly Professor Emeritus of American Literature at Penn State University, specializing in, among other things, African American poetry and poetics, Aldon Lyn Nielsen has published several books of his own poetry, along with scholarly books and anthologies such as Black Chant: Languages of African-American Postmodernism, and his recent essay: Choruses for Gil Scott Heron.
Check out more of what the Lab does here, and listen to more current and archival podcasts on Spotify or on our website.
To get original poetry right in your mailbox this summer, check out the Poetry Postcard Fest.
Podcast (prophets-podcast): Play in new window | Download (58.6MB)
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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.