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
Consider Supporting SPLAB during Give Big
I am asking your support for SPLAB during Give Big and contributions are being accepted now. As you may know, SPLAB is the non-profit organization...
A Birthday Wish for the National Poetry Month (from Nina Murray)
My birthday falls during the National Poetry Month in the U.S. I also happen to be a poet, so when people send me texts, presents, and other nice...
Karen Loeb Reading
Wisconsin postcard poet sends news: Hi Paul-- I'll be giving a presentation at the U. of Wisconsin-Stout in celebration of Nat'l Poetry Month this...
The Lost Postcards of Diane di Prima
As mentioned in last week's post, the 15th year of the Poetry Postcard Fest will be in honor of two brilliant poets we lost in 2020, Michael McClure...
2021 PPF Tribute to Diane di Prima and Michael McClure
Two poets who had tremendous influence on USAmerican culture and poetry in the second half of the 20th century, both died in 2020, were good friends...
Online Poetry Postcard Fest Exhibit Launch
Thanks to Kristen Ryberg and James Gaynor, the Online Poetry Postcard Fest Exhibit is up & running and was launched via Zoom, Sunday, March 28,...
Online Poetry Postcard Fest Exhibit
Thanks mainly to the work of two postcard people, Kristen Ryberg and James Gaynor, we'll have a launch for the Online Poetry Postcard Fest Exhibit...
Watch This
Thanks for this, Kristen Ryberg! https://watch.wave.video/ae75306066d3d2161f42929d popo.submittable.com
Susan Kay Anderson book on Virginia Brautigan Aste
Postcard poet Susan Kay Anderson has a new book on Virginia Brautigan Aste: In this startling and fascinating book, Susan Kay Anderson takes the...
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
Disposable Parts part 2: Launch Party
On Wednesday, February 26, I had a great time at Baba Yaga in Pioneer Square, Seattle celebrating the launch of Disposable Parts second edition. It...
Anne Tardos on Cascadian Prophets
I am grateful today to bring you an interview with Anne Tardos on Cascadian Prophets, reading from and speaking about her newest book: The Always...
Winter in America at AWP
On March 27, 2025 join us in Los Angeles for an off-site AWP conference event for Winter in America (Again! Join poets Rodrigo Toscano, Elizabeth...
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.
Rescue and Revival of a Seattle Legend: Carletta Carrington Wilson Interprets James Washington Jr.
Carletta Carrington Wilson discusses Poem of Stone & Bone in honor of James W. Washington Jr.
Podcast (prophets-podcast): Play in new window | Download (Duration: 39:30 — )
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.

































