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
506. Curved Projections
This is the first "official" poetry postcard of mine for 2015, year 9. I sent out one "practice card" to someone from last year's list, but THIS...
506. Curved Projections
The second poem from the 2015 August Poetry Postcard Fest, this one is really the first, since #505 was a dry run and #506 starts the poems that all...
Whalen, Zen and Postcards
Thanks to Sam Hamill's suggestion, I have been reading Crowded by Beauty a biography of Beat Poet and Zen Monk Philip Whalen by David Schneider. Am...
Postcard Feedback
I know what you are thinking. Don't put any more energy into things like this, but my strong sense of justice is begging me to respond. So, after...
2015 Postcard Final Stats
The signup for the 9th August Poetry Postcard Fest is final and the list has been sent to all participants. The total number of participants is down...
505. The Lake’s Brain
I was taking my corridor walk June 23, 2015, and was stunned by the reflection of the sun on wavelets of Lake Washington. I tried to get a decent...
2015 Poetry Postcard F.A.Q.’s
A few random questions posed by participants, or would-be participants, in the 2015 August Poetry Postcard Fest. By the way, this is your last call...
Why a Postcard Fee This Year?
I got an unsigned email this morning about the postcard fest: hello paul wondering - why is there a fee for participating now? what is done with...
The Postcard Is…
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
Frank Abe on The Literature of Japanese-American Incarceration
“A few months after the entry of the United States into World War II, the Government of the United States without a shred of evidence of misconduct...
Share your PPF poems!
Share your PPF postcard poems! Thank you so much for another incredible, record-breaking Poetry Postcard Fest! We'd like to give you the opportunity...
Sherri Olson’s Postcard Books
How Sherri Olson organizes her postcards From PPF participant Sherri Olson: Nan’s cute binder made me think I should share my solution. Years ago at...
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.
Cascadian Blogging (The Raven) Patrick Mazza Interview
Patrick Mazza’s blog, The Raven, exists: “To inform the people-power movements crucial to addressing the crises
coming upon us at national and global levels, from increasing national divisions and breakdown of institutions, to the climate crisis.”
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 42:13 — )
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Podcast (prophets-podcast): Play in new window | Download (Duration: 42:13 — )
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.