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
Poet Spotlight: Tess Gallagher
Among the many influential Cascadian poets that we are excited to welcome to the 7th Cascadia Poetry Festival on October 6-8 is the award winning...
Announcing the Poetry Postcard Fest Project Board
Introducing the Poetry Postcard Fest Project Board, a committee of the Cascadia Poetics Lab dedicated to improving the experience of the annual...
Riding the FireWind
Top photo: Mckenzie River Fire, photo by Marcus Kauffman, Oregon Dept of Forestry, 9/8/20 —David McCloskey, © Sept 8, 2020 Prologue BC is burning,...
Riding the FireWind Raining Ash at the Oregon Coast Photos
Top photo: Smoke Shrouded Devil's Elbow SP, near Florence, Oregon Coast, photo by David McCloskey. This is one of the most beloved places on the...
WHULGE: The Wheel of Waters
Image excerpted from McCloskey's map "The Ish River-Lillooet Country with The Salish Sea," 2021, available with its companion map of "Cascadia: A...
Interview with Stephen Thomas, Part 1
Before moving to Europe, Auburn, Washington native Stephen Thomas was quite active in the Seattle literary scene. He came back to Seattle (&...
Press Release: Register for the 7th Annual Cascadia Poetry Festival
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE July 14, 2023Contact: Paul E. Nelson, pen@cascadiapoeticslab.org REGISTER FOR 7TH ANNUAL CASCADIA POETRY FESTIVAL By Veronica...
The Fun Matters!
by Margaret Lee I keep signing up for the Poetry Postcard Fest every year, primarily because it’s the most fun I ever have when writing poetry....
SICA-USA Benefit Auction
SICA-USA is the cultural wing of Subud USA, a spiritual community to which I have belonged since 2004. Currently they are raising funds to support...
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
Postcards at the Olympic Sculpture Park
On July 13, 2025, Cascadia Poetics Lab hosted a postcard collage table at the Olympic Sculpture Park. 60 Seattle residents and park goers joined us...
Winter in America (Again Tour Highlights!
Winter in America (Again Tour! Last week, the Winter in America (Again editors and contributors embarked on a mini book tour of Western Washington....
PPF International List!
PPF Lists! Thank you to everyone that registered for the 2025 Poetry Postcard Fest. REGISTRATION FOR PPF 2025 IS NOW CLOSED. We understand that some...
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.
Interview with Bill Porter on the Film “Dancing With the Dead”
Paul E Nelson interviews Bill Porter on the film “Dancing With the Dead: Red Pine and the Art of Translation as it screens Sunday, April 21 at SIFF Cinema Egyptian.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 25:47 — 35.4MB)
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Podcast (prophets-podcast): Play in new window | Download (Duration: 25:47 — 35.4MB)
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.



































