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
Translator Red Pine & Haiku Poet, Artist & Translator John Brandi
CPL Board member Jason Wirth invites you to: A Reading & Receptionwith Acclaimed Translator Bill Porter (Red Pine)and Haiku Poet, Artist, and...
PPF 2023 Open Mic Video
Watch the 2023 PPF Open Mic Video! On October 1, 2023, the poet participants of the 2023 Poetry Postcard Fest met on Zoom for the first post-fest...
Cascadian Prophets Podcast
The Cascadian Prophets Podcast Interviews about poetry, culture, and cultural creatives, toward sustaining the Cascadia bioregion. Have you heard...
CASCADIAN ZEN LAUNCH EVENT TO BE HOSTED AT THE ROYAL BLOCK
Seattle-based poetry nonprofit Cascadia Poetics Lab anticipates multiple celebrations throughout the Cascadia...
Postcard Fest ’23 Wrap Up
From Zach Charles: Good Autumn Postcard-ians and non-Postcard-ians alike,I wanted to share a few thoughts on this summer’s fest and, finally, the...
CPF7 Highlights!
A HUGE thank you to everyone that attended CPF7! On October 6-8, we hosted our 7th Cascadia Poetry Festival at Spring Street Center in Seattle,...
Register for The Cantos Workshop NOW
We are incredibly honored to have esteemed poet and translator Andrew Schelling teach a workshop this fall on Ezra Pound's multi-decade,...
Register NOW for Fall Workshops!
Thank you SO MUCH to everyone that attended CPF7! We had an incredibly enriching and fulfilling weekend of poetry, education and community....
Thank you
Thank you Michael Dylan Welch for the Kubota Garden photographs. More photos soon. The 8th Cascadia Poetry Festival is being planned for Nov 1-3,...
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
To AI or Not to AI (Definitely Not)
To AI or Not to AI? (Definitely not.) From Postcard Poet Kathy Paul: I’ve loved participating in the summer Poetry Postcard Fest since I first heard...
Personal Universe Deck Poetry Practice
Last week we brought you some inspiration from our 2024 Life As Rehearsal For the Poem and Poetics As Cosmology course, and this week we have...
Register for the 9th Cascadia Poetry Festival!
9th Cascadia Poetry Festival Oct. 10-12 What does it mean to be here? How does one connect more deeply to a place, and how does this manifest in...
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.
Jerome Rothenberg Interview from 2001
Jerome Rothenberg was a legendary poet, translator and anthologist. His work on various poetry anthologies, including Poems for the Millennium were an inspiration for our Cascadian Zen series. He died on April 21, 2024 and we’re presenting this archive audio of the interview conducted in November 2001 as our latest Cascadian Prophets podcast. R.I.P. Jerome! Our introduction from 2001.
Podcast (prophets-podcast): Play in new window | Download (Duration: 47:05 — 64.7MB)
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.