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
Pierre Joris Interview (Canto Diurno #1)
It’s a pretty ambitious goal to write an epic poem in a day. Bernadette Mayer’s Midwinter Day, an epic about the daily routine written on Winter...
Give Big 2022
Give Big, the annual campaign to support cultural organizations in the state of Washington is now! The Cascadia Poetics Lab seeks your support to...
Earlybird Registration Ends June 4
Dear Postcard Poet, The earlybird registration for 2022 (Year 16 of the Poetry Postcard Fest) ends June 4 and the price will nudge up a bit for...
Hoa Nguyen Interview (A Thousand Times You Lose Your Treasure)
We caught up via Zoom with Hoa Nguyen on April 14, 2022 for an interview. Not everyone can say their mother was part of an all woman motorcycle...
Earth Day Cleanup of Chinook Beach Park
It has the potential to be quite a place to experience Seattle at its best. Right on Lake Washington, with views of the Cascade Mountains, a modest...
John Brehm (The Dharma of Poetry) Interview
What a delight to interview John Brehm in his Portland home, Thursday, February 24, 2022. There are a couple of wonderful blurbs for his new book...
Lawrence Pevec on Postcard Poetry
Our intrepid interviewer Ina Roy caught up with two time participant, Colorado resident Lawrence Pevec, to discuss his experience with the Poetry...
Wah, Whitehill, Lashley
Our Imbolc/Lunar New Year, Founding Supporters reading was magnificent. BC poetry legend Fred Wah, Ukiah California's Theresa Whitehill and...
Upcoming Founding Supporters Reading
Casdadia Poetics LAB Founding Supporters Reading On January 31, 2022 at 6pm, The Cascadia Poetics Lab offers the latest reading for Founding...
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
Denny Stern: Taiwan Etudes
From Postcard Poet Denny Stern: Taiwan Etudes Series Visiting Taipei in March we stumbled upon a post card intensive solo exhibit by Taiwanese...
Cascadia Poetics Lab in Schools
In March of 2025, Cascadia Poetics Lab founding director Paul E. Nelson was a guest speaker and workshop facilitator at Jackson High School in...
Give BIG PPF & Your Postcard Testimonials!
Support Cascadia Poetics Lab and Poetry Postcard Fest May 6-7 Thank you for being a postcard poet! We are gearing up for another summer of postcards...
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.
Stephen Thomas Interview Part 2
The second half of our July 4, 2023 interview with Steven Thomas, former Seattle poet, co-founder of the Seattle Poetry Festival and former teacher at University Prep. He discussed his life, struggles with addictions, move to Germany and his latest book of poetry What is Between Us.
Podcast (prophets-podcast): Play in new window | Download ()
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.