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
Koon Woon Tribute Reading (with video)
From Leopoldo Seguel, the host and producer of Poetry Bridge at C& P Coffee Company in West Seattle: Hello PoetryBridge community, This coming...
Red Pine and Andrew Schelling @ Seattle U
The Seattle University Philosophy Department presents Red Pine and Andrew Schelling Poetry Reading: Translations from Classical Chinese and Sanskrit...
Spokane Memorial for Renee Nicole Good
(From Greg Bem) Hey folks. Given the nature of the book I thought you would appreciate knowing that: Foray for The Arts in Spokane will be holding a...
Register for The Poetics of Cascadian Land and Water!
The Poetics of Cascadian Land and Water with Harold Rhenisch Our new workshop, The Poetics of Cascadian Land and Water with Harold Rhenisch, begins...
Jan Zwicky Say It Launch
Zoom Launch for Say It Recording Deer Mountain Pages will be hosting a launch of a recording of their most recent publication, Say It by Jan Zwicky....
Jan 2, 2026 Interview with Cornelius Eady on Proof
On January 1, 2026, a 34-year-old, immigrant, Muslim, democratic socialist mayor was sworn in to run the largest city in the United States. When...
Hello 2026!
Happy New Year from Cascadia Poetics Lab! Happy New Year! Thank you for another successful and enriching year for poetry and place in Cascadia! This...
Trevor Carolan on Making Waves: Reading BC and PNW Literature
In this edition of Cascadian Prophets, Trevor Carolan talks about Making Waves. If artists are the antennae of the race, then the poets and writers...
Dragon Tongues: The Origin of Atmospheric Rivers
Dragon Tongues: The Origin of Atmospheric Rivers from David McCloskey, designer of the Cascadia bioregion map. Learn more about David's work at the...
Cascadia Poetics LAB Blog
Postcarding & Daysinging (A Workshop)
Today, May 4, 2026, marks the last month of Earlybird Registration for the 20th Poetry Postcard Fest. The suggested donation will go up to $25 after...
Zhang Er on First Mountain
Sam Hamill wrote in his final book blurb: “Zhang Er brings us startling 'burial ground poems' from Chinese that are striking in their perspective...
Interview with Postcard Poet Laura Gamache
Part of the Cascadia 2050 mission is: to inspire artists and poets of the next generation to consider bioregionalism and intuitive poetic approach...
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.
Lorin Medley On the Way to Kluusms
On the Way to Kluusms is the first poetry chapbook to be published by Watershed Press, a bioregional press based in Seattle, but with strong connections to Vancouver Island. The author is Lorin Medley, whose poetry has been published in anthologies like Winter in America (Again, Cascadian Zen Volume II and Drift: Poems and Poets from the Comox Valley. Lorin lives, gardens and writes from her home in Comox, British Columbia, the unceded territory of the K’ómoks First Nation. She speaks about On the Way to Kluusms, what it means to live in place and how we disconnect from ourselves.
Check out more of what the Lab does here, and listen to more current and archival podcasts on Spotify or on our website. If you liked Lorin’s poetry, consider signing up for the Poetry Postcard Fest to have original poems sent right to your mailbox!
Podcast (prophets-podcast): Play in new window | Download (Duration: 46:06 — 63.3MB)
!
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.