This will be the third workshop aiming to demystify the process of writing poetry, and, as the CPL and Cascadia 2050 missions say, “empower people to practice poetry…”
Click this link for more information about the workshop I Want to Write a Poem (But Don’t Know How)
Saturday December 12, 2026, 3-5:00 PM Pacific Time
Cost: free, suggested donation $25.
I Want to Write a Poem (But Don’t Know How): A Cascadia 2050 workshop
This will be the third workshop aiming to demystify the process of writing poetry, and, as the CPL and Cascadia 2050 missions say, “empower people to practice poetry…”
Click this link for more information about the workshop I Want to Write a Poem (But Don’t Know How)
Saturday December 12, 2026, 3-5:00 PM Pacific Time
Cost: free, suggested donation $25.
Explore practices that help keep consciousness attuned to the realities of the world – and discover how poetry can emerge from that depth. In this five-week workshop, Paul E. Nelson guides participants through readings, interviews, journaling, and writing exercise rooted in the Cascadia bioregion. All levels are welcome; openness and a commitment to the practice are all that’s required.
Learn more about Poetry as Neuro-Resilience →
Suggested donation: $130–$275
Saturday Cohort
Saturdays 9-11 AM Pacific Time
November 21, 2026 – December 19, 2026
Sunday Cohort
Sundays 3-5 PM Pacific Time
November 22, 2026 – December 20, 2026
Cascadia Poetics LAB Blog
August Poetry Postcard Fest Instructions
OK poets! At this point we are one over the record 302 poets we set last year, but I am sure we'll get much past that. I have sent a list via email...
August Poetry Postcard Project, Year 8!
It is almost August once again and this means POSTCARDS! The August Poetry Postcard Project is an exercise in responding to other poets. You write...
Habib Audio, Interview and Postcards
My posts on the August 2013 Seattle visit of Morrocan poet and Beat scholar El Habib Louai were quite long, (archived here) so I am creating this...
All 2013 Postcards
I have posted all my 2013 POstcard POems in one spot. See: https://wp.me/P1Xnkd-1h7. For more on the fest,...
470. Lowell Murphree, Ellensburg, WA – Relentless Meow
(click here for audio)
469. Elyse Brownell, Boulder, CO – Fennel or Nasturtium Blossoms
(click here for audio)
468. Matt Trease, Seattle, WA, Nerve Endings and Rainstorms
(click here for audio)
466. Joe Chiveney, Olympia, WA – The Empty River
(click here for audio)
465. T. Clear, Seattle, WA – Late August Rain Vigil
(click here for audio)
Cascadia Poetics LAB Blog
Mini-Forest Revolution by Hannah Lewis
Mini-Forest Revolution by Hannah Lewis When I say the word infrastructure, what do you imagine? Huge concrete highways, towering steel skyscrapers,...
Thinkingwith Workshop
Thinkingwith: Writing Strategies for Reconnecting to Earth Workshop Next month, we will be welcoming poet, artist, teacher and astrologer Matt...
Sam Hamill’s Narrow Road to the Interior Winter Workshop
Sam Hamill's Narrow Road to the Interior Workshop Happy 2025! This year, Cascadia Poetics Lab will be expanding our workshop offerings and welcoming...
Help bring conversations with poets, authors, Indigenous leaders, and other culture workers to listeners around the world.
major sponsorship – $5,000 annually
Receive sponsor recognition at the beginning and end of each podcast episode produced during your sponsorship year. Those acknowledgements remain part of the recordings permanently.
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...
In Honor of David McCloskey “The Father of Cascadia”
David McCloskey passed away on July 3. In honor of his lifetime of work to create and spread a culture that was deeply connected to the Cascadian bioregion, Cascadian Prophets, which owes more than just its name to his work, we want to share this interview from October, 2013. Find it transcribed on our website.
Listen to more current and archival podcasts on Spotify or on our website.
In Honor of David McCloskey "The Father of Cascadia"
!
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.





























