This will be the third workshop aiming to demystify the process of writing poetry, and, as the CPL and Cascadia 2050 missions say, “empower people to practice poetry…”
Click this link for more information about the workshop I Want to Write a Poem (But Don’t Know How)
Saturday December 12, 2026, 3-5:00 PM Pacific Time
Cost: free, suggested donation $25.
I Want to Write a Poem (But Don’t Know How): A Cascadia 2050 workshop
This will be the third workshop aiming to demystify the process of writing poetry, and, as the CPL and Cascadia 2050 missions say, “empower people to practice poetry…”
Click this link for more information about the workshop I Want to Write a Poem (But Don’t Know How)
Saturday December 12, 2026, 3-5:00 PM Pacific Time
Cost: free, suggested donation $25.
Explore practices that help keep consciousness attuned to the realities of the world – and discover how poetry can emerge from that depth. In this five-week workshop, Paul E. Nelson guides participants through readings, interviews, journaling, and writing exercise rooted in the Cascadia bioregion. All levels are welcome; openness and a commitment to the practice are all that’s required.
Learn more about Poetry as Neuro-Resilience →
Suggested donation: $130–$275
Saturday Cohort
Saturdays 9-11 AM Pacific Time
November 21, 2026 – December 19, 2026
Sunday Cohort
Sundays 3-5 PM Pacific Time
November 22, 2026 – December 20, 2026
Cascadia Poetics LAB Blog
Poetry and Posole Highlights!
Thank you for the Poetry & Posole fun! On May 18, 2024, Cascadia Poetics Lab hosted a Poetry & Posole fundraiser with delicious posole,...
Poetry & Posole THIS WEEKEND!
Celebrate Cascadia with us THIS SATURDAY! THIS SATURDAY May 18, Cascadia Poetics Lab is hosting a Poetry and Posole celebration with poetry...
GIVE BIG to Cascadia Poetics Lab!
GIVE BIG to Cascadia Poetics Lab in 2024! Help celebrate Give Big 2024 on May 7-8 by donating to the Cascadia Poetics Lab! Give Big is a state-wide...
Poetry & Posole
Poetry and Posole Cascadia Day Celebrate the power of the natural world and the magnificence of the Cascadia bioregion with us on Cascadia Day, May...
Mapes Creek Blessing
I think the first notion of land healing rituals came to me we hosted Diane di Prima at the old NW Spokenword Lab in Auburn November 1999. It might...
Cascadian Zen Audio from Vancouver Reading
The Cascadian Zen editors are on the road again. This Tuesday, (APR 30, 2024) at 6pm, we close out National Poetry Month in style with a reading at...
Mapes Creek Multicultural Blessing April 27 9am
Since moving the world headquarters of the Cascadia Poetics Lab to Rainier Beach in July 2017, I have become enamored with Mapes Creek, or what the...
Poetry and Posole Fundraiser Event!
Celebrate Cascadia Day at our Poetry and Posole Fundraiser! On May 18, celebrate the power of the natural world and the magnificence of the Cascadia...
Upcoming Cascadian Zen Mini Tour!
Upcoming Cascadian Zen Events! The editors of Cascadian Zen Vol. I Paul Nelson, Adelia MacWilliam and Dr. Jason Wirth are embarking on another mini...
Cascadia Poetics LAB Blog
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...
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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.
Matt Trease Interview (The Outside)
A couple years back I steered a kayak over the stone remnants believed to be of that dammed weir and felt the tears of Southwind and his grandmother that broke the spell of ice and separation. In a moment I felt that wheel turning me, releasing the grief over my own people, still a mystery to me from centuries of migrations, of imperial assimilation, erased by the cold wind of empire and science and the myriad attempts to dam up the natural world with standardized time, supply chains, and rows and rows and rows of repeatable little boxes we stuff our brains and bodies into.
Podcast (prophets-podcast): Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:09:38 — 95.6MB)
In Honor of David McCloskey “The Father of Cascadia”
David McCloskey passed away on July 3. In honor of his lifetime of work to create and spread a culture that was deeply connected to the Cascadian bioregion, Cascadian Prophets, which owes more than just its name to his work, we want to share this interview from October, 2013. Find it transcribed on our website.
Listen to more current and archival podcasts on Spotify or on our website.
In Honor of David McCloskey "The Father of Cascadia"
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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.




































