I Want to Write a Poem (But Don’t Know How): A Cascadia 2050 workshop
On Saturday, June 27, from 3 – 5pm, Cascadia 2050 will be hosting a workshop titled: I Want to Write a Poem (But Don’t Know How). Cost: free, suggested donation $25. Sign up here.
Cascadia Poetics LAB Blog
Ian Boyden and Sam Hamill on Habitations
On November 10, 2012, Sam Hamill and Ian Boyden joined together to do an interview on Hamill's chapbook Border Songs, as well as Habitations, a...
CPL Featured Poet – Martha Clarkson
CPL Featured Poets To continue to extend our gratitude to the generosity of our community, Cascadia Poetics Lab is featuring the work of our...
Cascadia 2050 in Vancouver!
On Friday, January 31 and Friday, February 6, Cascadia 2050 members Zach Charles, Ankober Yewondwossen and myself (Veronica Martinez) drove to...
JOIN US for Postcard Activation Events!
FREE Postcard Activation Events in Seattle this Spring! JOIN US for a series of free outdoor postcard poetry gatherings in Seattle’s Rainier Beach...
The Poetics of Cascadian Land and Water VIDEOS!
The Poetics of Cascadian Land and Water Curriculum Available NOW! The Poetics of Cascadian Land and Water workshop facilitated by poet Harold...
Bill Barillas on Theodore Roethke
In this edition of Cascadian Prophets, we hear Bill Barillas on Theodore Roethke. Bill Barillas is the editor of A Field Guide to the Poetry of...
Support the Families of Tyjon Stewart and Traveiah Houfmuse
Support the Families of Tyjon Stewart and Traveiah Houfmuse In late January, 2026, Rainier Beach teens Tyjon Stewart and Traveiah Houfmuse were...
Jerry Martien Reading at Seattle University
Jerry Martien Reading and Conversation and Seattle University On March 10, 2026 at 6 P.M. PST at the Stuart T. Rolfe Community Room (824 12th Ave,...
Cascadia 2050 Mission
Cascadia 2050 Mission and Goals Cascadia 2050 was established in 2024 by Veronica Martinez, Zach Charles, Zaylan Jacobsen and Paul Nelson with the...
Cascadia Poetics LAB Blog
Cascadia Day Photos
We celebrated Cascadia Day 2026 at Vermillion with Andy Engelson at the Cascadia Journal/Cascadia Democratic Action and Wade Atkinson took some...
Cascadian Poetry at Vermillion
The Cascadia Day Poetry Explosion, organized by Andy Engelson of Cascadia Journal and Cascadia Democratic Action was a brilliant evening of creative...
Deborah Poe on “flagging the apocalypse pageantry”
How does one make literary art about this time in history that avoids rhetoric and facile political positioning in this era of the spectacle? How...
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.
Aldon Nielsen on Choruses for Gil Scott-Heron
Aldon Lynn Nielsen says the time is right to say it straight, Gil Scott-Heron should be recognized as an important writer. As the George and Barbara Kelly Professor Emeritus of American Literature at Penn State University, specializing in, among other things, African American poetry and poetics, Aldon Lyn Nielsen has published several books of his own poetry, along with scholarly books and anthologies such as Black Chant: Languages of African-American Postmodernism, and his recent essay: Choruses for Gil Scott Heron.
Check out more of what the Lab does here, and listen to more current and archival podcasts on Spotify or on our website.
To get original poetry right in your mailbox this summer, check out the Poetry Postcard Fest.
Podcast (prophets-podcast): Play in new window | Download (58.6MB)
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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.