Cascadia Poetics LAB
Empowering people to practice poetry & deepen connections to place, self & the present moment.
We believe that poetry is the nexus at which self-knowledge, bioregionalism and expansive creativity converge. Cascadia Poetics Lab is a vibrant community whose workshops, festivals, and opportunities for connection can open the door to transformative experiences.
Poet, translator, editor, Zen Buddhist, co-founder of Copper Canyon Press, and activist for Poets Against (the)War, Sam Hamill devoted his whole life to the practice of writing poetry. The following topics are foundational for this generative workshop: how ancient poetic traditions still define quality poetry, the Beat poets, the long poetic sequence, poetry as political, and the role of reflection and emotion. Facilitator Katie Sarah Zale is writing a biography on Hamill’s life and legacy.
Saturdays 2-4:00 PM Pacific Time
February 8 – March 8, 2025
Sam Hamill’s Narrow Road to the Interior
Sam Hamill’s Narrow Road to the Interior
Poet, translator, editor, Zen Buddhist, co-founder of Copper Canyon Press, and activist for Poets Against (the)War, Sam Hamill devoted his whole life to the practice of writing poetry. The following topics are foundational for this generative workshop: how ancient poetic traditions still define quality poetry, the Beat poets, the long poetic sequence, poetry as political, and the role of reflection and emotion. Facilitator Katie Sarah Zale is writing a biography on Hamill’s life and legacy.
Saturdays 2-4:00 PM Pacific Time
February 8 – March 8, 2025
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.
This lab will focus on writing strategies, applicable for poetry or prose, for breaking the spell that objectifies and cuts us off from the earth and from place and all the living beings that we (often) obliviously live in relationship with. We’ll do that by intentionally widening the socially-imposed conventions of “normal” perception via some minor alterations to our daily writing practices.
Sundays 3-5:00 PM Pacific Time
February 23 – March 23, 2025
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.
This lab will focus on writing strategies, applicable for poetry or prose, for breaking the spell that objectifies and cuts us off from the earth and from place and all the living beings that we (often) obliviously live in relationship with. We’ll do that by intentionally widening the socially-imposed conventions of “normal” perception via some minor alterations to our daily writing practices.
Sundays 3-5:00 PM Pacific Time
February 23 – March 23, 2025
Cascadia Poetics LAB Blog
Michael Daley Interview (Romance with the Unexpected)
I had the good fortune on Sunday, July 17, 2022 to travel to the home of Michael Daley, on Fidalgo Island, to chat with him about his poem Romance with the Unexpected, a new chapbook, as well as his...
WAPL Call for Salmon Poems
Rena Priest, Washington State Poet Laureate, was just awarded a fellowship from the Academy of American Poets! As part of the fellowship, she is creating an anthology of poetry dedicated to salmon,...
2022 Postcard Fest Stats
The stats are now final for the 2022 Poetry Postcard Fest. Participants: 544 The highest fest participation in 16 years, matching the pandemic year, 2020. Countries, 12: Australia, Canada, France,...
Interview with Claudia Castro Luna
Interview with Claudia Castro Luna, recorded 17-JUNE-2022 via Zoom about her new book Cipota Under the Moon. There’s war raging in Ukraine. A general feeling that a second U.S. Civil War is possible...
2022 Poetry Postcard Fest Launch
(This post has been updated with video of the launch for those who could not attend. See below.) I've been getting some questions as the draft lists go out, so figured it would be good to do a...
Postcard Fest Registration Ends July 4
Year 16 of the Poetry Postcard Fest starts on Monday, July 4, 2022 and registration will end on that day. Already there are over 427 registered poets from 12 different countries. There are MANY...
Cascadia Poetics LAB Blog
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 Poetics Lab embarked on a mini-tour of readings and...
CPF7 Eco-Poetics Panel Video
Watch the Cascadia Poetry Festival 7 Eco-Poetics Panel! On Saturday, October 7, 2023, we held the Eco-Poetics talk concurrently with Tess Gallagher's "Simulating the Satori Moment in Poems"...
CPF7 Poetics of De-Colonial Cascadia Video
Watch the CPF7 Poetics of De-Colonial Cascadia Video! On Saturday, October 7, 2023, we followed the Empty Bowl Press panel with a panel on the Poetics of De-Colonial Cascadia. This panel was...
Fumiko Kimura’s Life & Art by David Berger
How to capture the soul of a subject, live your life dedicated to your own art, the process of discovery and even plan your syncretic memorial so...
Poetry Postcard Fest
An annual 56 day self-guided workshop in spontaneous composition and community-building.
Poetry Postcard Fest
An annual 56 day self-guided workshop in spontaneous composition and community-building.
Thank you
for an enormously sucessful 8th Cascadia Poetry Festival! Make plans for Cascadia Poetry Festival 9 at the Hugo House and other venues October 3, 4, and 5, 2025.
Thank You to Our Partners and Alliances:
!
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.