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
Ten Years of Postcard Fest
The tenth year of the Poetry Postcard Fest is under way and there are seven full groups of 32 poets, 224 participants in all, which is a record for...
Ina Roy-Faderman’s Postcard Testimonial
From Ina Roy-Faderman: “All I ever wanted was to reach out and touch another human being not just with my hands but with my heart.” ― Tahereh...
August Poetry Postcard Fest Official Call Year Ten
The August Poetry Postcard Fest was initiated in 2007 by poets Paul Nelson and Lana Ayers. 2016 marks the tenth year of the fest and this is your...
56 Days of August (The August Postcard Fest Anthology)
From Ina Roy: The yearly August Postcard Poetry Festival has become an international event. To celebrate the 10th year of the Fest and the community...
Are You Stockpiling Postcards?
The 10th August Poetry Postcard Fest begins on July 4. Registration begins that day here: Buy tickets for Poetry Postcard Fest And poems from this...
Elizabeth Woods Postcard Interview
Elizabeth Woods checks in from Down Under with a Postcard Fest interview. An excerpt: EW-The festival is now in its tenth year, what are some of the...
2016 August Poetry Postcard Fest is Coming!
The call for the tenth year of the August Poetry Postcard Fest will be released on July 4, 2016, and tickets go on sale at that time. Like last...
536. Jupiter in Virgo
Another Georgia O’Keeffe image used for this latest 2015 August Poetry Postcard and one of the shortest 2015 postcard poems mostly because of the...
535. Green For Red
Another Georgia O’Keeffe image, this latest August Poetry Postcard Fest poem was sent as prayer for a postcarder in the middle of summer wildfire...
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
Celebrate Cascadia Poetics Lab on Giving Tuesday!
Celebrate CPL on Giving Tuesday Dec. 3! We thank all participants and attendees at the recent 8th Cascadia Poetry Festival. We hope to stage this at...
CPF8 Thanks
We will begin the process of documenting and reporting on all of the developments from the 8th Cascadia Poetry Festival on this blog in the next few...
CPF8 Sunday!
CPF8 Sunday Schedule The 8th Cascadia Poetry Festival begins TOMORROW! We can't wait to celebrate poetry and place in Cascadia with everyone! Gold...
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.
Ricardo Ruiz (We Had Our Reasons)
“I am a warrior, so that my son may be a merchant, so that his son may be a poet.” A quote attributed to John Quincy Adams, though it is quite...
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.


























