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
Sept 13, 2020 Open Mic Video
The video is produced and online. The first Poetry Postcard Fest open mic happened via Zoom on Sunday, September 13, 2020 at 4pm PDT with your...
Sept 1 = End of Poetry Postcard Fest
Happy September. The fest is over, except for the stragglers. Expect a few cards coming in these next few days and then maybe one or two a few weeks...
Poetry Postcard Fest Open Mic
Please join us for the first Poetry Postcard Fest Open Mic, via Zoom, Sunday, September 13 at 4pm PDT. We'll meet for 90 minutes, discuss our 2020...
Postcard Poet Theresa Whitehill + Open Mic via Zoom
Poetry Postcard Fest's parent organization SPLAB is honored to partner with Easy Speak Seattle to present a night of open mic poetry and featured...
Approaches to Poetry Postcard Fest Collage (Video!)
Sunday, August 2 at 4pm PDT, we had a Zoom discussion on how three different veteran Poetry Postcard Fest participants create their unique cards:...
POPO2020 Stats
I have such delight in tallying up the stats for Poetry Postcard Fest when registration is over. Maybe it is the buzz of registration being over...
Six Week Fall Zoom Workshop
Poetics as Cosmology (Intro to Spontaneous Composition) A six week online (Zoom) workshop for people who have had a little experience in spontaneous...
Clarissa Duran Poetry Postcard Fest interview
Poetry Postcard Fest co-founder Paul Nelson interviews Clarissa Duran on her experience with the august POetry POstcard festival.
Best Poetry Postcard Fest Practices
The recording of the July 11 webinar on Best Poetry Postcard Practices is now online. The Co-Editors of the 56 Days of August: Poetry Postcards...
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
Readings from Winter in America (Again at Seattle U
On Tuesday, 4 February 2025, I was honored to take part in the first public reading of Winter in America (Again. This anthology, published by...
Help Katie Sarah Zale Write Sam Hamill’s Biography
Katie Sarah Zale, writer, co-editor of Winter in America (Again and facilitator of the CPL workshop Sam Hamill's Narrow Road to the Interior, is...
Postcard Poet Maureen Kane Publishes Poetry Collection
Mycelium: Poetry of Connection published by postcard poet Maureen Kane Postcard poet Maureen Sandra Kane has published a new poetry collection,...
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.
Shuri Kido Interview on Names And Rivers
What a blessing it was December 28, 2022, to interview Shuri Kido, the accomplished Japanese poet and Zen...
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.


































