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
THE DOUBLE WALLS OF CASCADIA
by David McCloskey There’s both a Western Wall and an Eastern Wall marking Cascadia’s boundaries…. The Western Wall. Cascadia rises as a great...
NW Dharma Association on Cascadian Zen
Cascadian Zen has received a wonderful reception from the regional Zen community. The Northwest Dharma Association published a blog post about the...
Cascadian Zen Reading at Arundel Books (with audio!)
On Friday, January 19, 2024 at 7pm, Arundel Books hosted a reading from Cascadian Zen. Two of the books three editors were there, Tetsuzen Jason...
CPF7 Sunday Readings
Watch the CPF7 Sunday closing readings! On October 8, 2023, we closed Cascadia Poetry Festival 7 with a viewing of the Heavy Lifting film, a film...
Robert Bringhurst Interview Part 3
The third and final part of my October 22, 2023 interview with Robert Bringhurst is presented here today and will be part of the upcoming book...
CPF7 Saturday After Party!
Listen to the CPF7 After Party readings! Following our multiple Cascadia Poetry Festival 7 presentations on Saturday, October 7, 2023, many...
CPF7 Saturday Night Readings
Watch the CPF7 Saturday Night Readings! To close out our second day of Cascadia Poetry Festival 7, poet, teacher, astrologer and CPL board member...
Alice Glover Interview
Alice died today, December 23, 2023 so we are re-posting this interview as Alice heads to postcard heaven. Goodbye dear poet. The 2022 fest is...
Cascadian Zen Mini Tour Highlights
Highlights from the Cascadian Zen Vol. I Mini Tour! In celebration of the release of Cascadian Zen Vol. I published by Watershed Press, Cascadia...
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
PPF 2026 Registration is open Now!
Register for PPF 2026! Registration for the 2026 Poetry Postcard Fest is open NOW! CLICK HERE to register for next year's summer of postcard poetry....
Winter in America (Still Submissions Open!
Submit to Winter in America (Still We invite poets and artists to contribute to the Winter in America (Again sequel anthology Winter in America...
CPL at the Rain Shadow Poetry Festival!
The weekend of August 21-24, Paul Nelson and 3/4 of the Cascadia 2050 crew embarked on a journey to Cumberland, British Columbia for the Rain Shadow...
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.
Frank Abe on The Literature of Japanese-American Incarceration
An interview with Frank Abe, co-editor of the new anthology The Literature of Japanese American Incarceration, conducted September 20, 2024 by Paul E Nelson
Podcast (prophets-podcast): Play in new window | Download (Duration: 45:40 — 62.7MB)
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.



































