The Onion of Being
Never stops growing
Layering layers over layers---
Giving us one peel a day
On our life's way

Pulling Onions
1,100 Aphorisms, Quips, Remarks, One-Liners

The Moral Compass of Buddhism:
Points to Compassion and Mindfulness,
Respect for all living beings,
Decency, detachment, Dharma,
Treading the Path to Enlightenment.

Buddhism

Virtue Ethics

How to Live a Good Life

tired
worked hard
     job done—
resting now
     sipping rum

3003.

Bundled Up:

Quintains, Tankas, Pentastichs, and Onions

Original Quintain Poetry By Mike Garofalo

Bundled Up, Volume 1
Quintain Poems 1 - 1,000

Bundled Up, Volume 2
Quintain Poems 1,000 - 1,500

Bundled Up, Volume 3
Quintain Poems 1,500 - 2,000

Bundled Up, Volume 4
Quintain Poems 2,000 - 2,500

Bundled Up, Volume 5
Quintain Poems 2,500 - 3,000

Bundled Up, Volume 6
Quintain Poems 3,000 - 3,500

Bundled Up, Volume 7
Quintain Poems 3,500 - 4,000

!!! No AI Poems on this Webpage !!!

Quintains - Research

Quintains: 3,000+ Quintains (Free Online)

Quintain Poetry Rhyme Schemes

Quintain Sonnet Forms ( 554, 5252, 555, 553 )

The Tick-Tock Tractatus

Quintains: Bibliography, Links, Notes

Quintains: Cloud Hands Blog Posts

Poetry - Research

Poetry by Michael P. Garofalo

This work is licensed under a:
Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-No-Derivates
4.0 International License.

3006.

His Hometown in the Rain

Tumuco, Chile:
Pablo Neruda's home town
Poverty, soaked clothes, stifled, unhappiness,
Few opportunities!
People move on...

- Pablo Neruda

Tumuco, Chile 1905

3007.

Freedom of the will is constrained
by sensible knowledge of the future
by using antecedent causes and reasons for
Finding ways for your family to survive---
Don't pretend to not know your future.

3oo8.

"For the poet is dead.
The pen, splintered on the sheer
Excesses of vision, unfingered, falls.
The heart-crookt hand, cold as a stone,
Lets it go down."

- William Everson (Brother Antoninus)
The Poet is Dead
For Robinson Jeffers

3009.

forest = for rest
happiness = happy nest
appeal = a peel
aversion = a version

3010.

Calming as warm sunshine in winter
Refreshing as a cool breeze in summer
Blooming as a garden the spring
Letting go as trees in autumn.
Opening the doors of future years.

3011.

"I saw go by in my dream
Like a storm over sand
A great sword in one hand
An hourglass in the other
That horseman

Of German ballads
Whom across country through towns
Over rivers up mountains
Through forests down valleys
A Stallion ..."

- Paul Verlaine, Nightmare

3012.

Time travel - imaginary
Fictional - hypothetical-figurative
Back to the Future - reel time
Forward to the Past - speculate
Fantasies in the Now - create

Tick-Tock Tractatus

3013.

Time slipped and slid
On the path to the future
Unsure of its direction.
Pushed by the Past;
Traveling very fast.

3014.

Scientific Communications

Utterances, Statements, Claims, Propositions:
Intelligent, well formed, being clear, making sense,
grammatically correct, logical, consistent, realistic,
declarative, verifiable, true, pointing to, confirmable,
showing something, refutable, understood, factual.

Peer Reviewed Journals
Worldwide Agreements
Worldwide Confirmation

3015.

"The fairest Cosmos
Is merely
A rubbish-heap
Poured out
at Random."

- Heraclitus, Fragment 124

- A. C. Kirk, Heraclitus: The Cosmic Fragments

3016.

---A third of our life disappeared...
In the empty timelessness of sleep---
---A retreat into the darkness of peace...
Occasional snippets of dreams---
---The Foundation of energy for awakening....

Sleeping

Dreaming

Awakening

3017.

In the beginning was the deed
the work, the effort, the toil...
For days, weeks, months, years, decades---
Thus our efforts define our accomplishments;
Our gifts to their unknown posterity.

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

Karl Marx

3018.

Broke a blood vessel
Between my left thumb and index;
By hand twisting a round fixture
on an old shower pipe.
What a dummkoff! Get a wrench!

3019.

Her words had an aroma of meaning
the flavor of insights
the filling taste of truth---
Her nourishing thoughts
drew many to savor her mind.

3020.

Poliomyelitis could kill you
in five days time in 1940.
Young persons suffering,
a hopelessness undeserved---
Jonas Salk in 1955 give a cure.

Poliomyelitis

Jonas Salk, M.D.

3021.

Onion Garden by Mike Garofalo

Concrete Poetry and Text Art by Mike Garofalo

3022.

Time is an idea about
how objects/things interact,
move from place to place,
appear and disappear untraced,
are at our hands for work and play.

Time - Quotations

Tick-Tock Tractatus

3023.

What is warm cools
What is wet dries
What is ice melts
What is rock shatters---
Time's arrow falls to the ground.

- Heraclitus, Fragment 126

- A. C. Kirk, Heraclitus: The Cosmic Fragments

3024.

The Apocalypse
Instantaneous
Brilliant BLAST
Hiroshima's Killer Smash
Dresden's fiery Death
Tokyo's napalm firestorm
Nagasaki's Gone!

Apocalypse

Nuclear Weapons

Napalm

3025.

The Future is Fixed

"(1) There are now propositions about everything that might happen in the future.

(2) Every proposition is either true or else false.

(3) If (1) and (2), then there is now a set of true propositions that, taken together, correctly predict everything that will happen in the future.

(4) If there is now a set of true propositions that, taken together, correctly predict everything that will happen in the future, then whatever will happen in the future is already unavoidable.

Therefore: (5) Whatever will happen in the future is already unavoidable."

 

Time - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Fatalism

Free Will

Tick-Tock Tractatus

3026.

every leaf
twitching to
the gentle breeze
slipping thru
morning dew

3027.

Once upon a time...
People figured out how
to measure change with
a sundial, counted cycles, church bells, whatever...
and agreed to coordinate their work at specific signals.

Work Doing: Fallenness, Finitude, and Work
in the Real World. By W. David Bushhart.

3028.

Never the Less

Gertrude Stein's style:
Was then
And now
Broken
Down

All around
Split up
Tossed around
Like 52 pick-up cards
Of a Bicycle deck tossed down

- Gertrude Stein (1874-1946)

Classic Collection of Gertrude Stein

3029.

Some old hold strictly to the Present
As actual given Reality.
The future in nothing.
From nothing comes nothing.
So nothing changes---claims Parmenides.

- Parmenides (510 BCE)

3030.

We made sex so fun
Fucking outdoors in the sun
A blanket for a bed on the ground
Nobody else ever around---
Oh, to be twenty-one again. So Fun!

Doggerel Verses

3031.

We helped the injured boy
till the ambulance arrived.

Saw him weeks later
On crutches with a cast on his leg.

Another sporting broken bone case.

3032.

Stood alone on the Nehalem dunes
Beach grasses thick, waist high,
Squiggly thin sandy trails to climb
Views in all directions---Sublime!
Then, quietly, sat hidden for a long time.

- Nehalem Bay State Park, Oregon

- Nehalem Bay, Oregon

3033.

Roast Potatoes For

Roast Time in the oven
Till crisp and crinkly done---
Stuff two decades in a glass of wine
Smoke away two months of trouble
Announce the best times for an Olympian runner.

- A. C. Kirk, Heraclitus: The Cosmic Fragments

- Gertrude Stein

3034.

In an hour it will be done
A solar eclipse will slowly come
Darkening the daylight for awhile.
Wearing special glasses protecting our eyes---
We all were quiet for the sight.

Portland, Oregon, Solar Eclipse 2017

A Gardener's Sutra on Time, Part 2.1

3035.

I straightened up my room
prepared my floor bed
laid down slowly
covered up with blanket's cozy---
closed my eyes, then disappeared.

3036.

Profound insights
are rarely found
in brief quintains---
yet, occasionally,
something minor rings true.

3037.

When I was an infant
A fat bottle fed gobbler me
twisted and crawled inside his crib.
I smiled when they smiled.
My mom held and fed me.

3038.

I walked to the rail
at the Glacier Point ledge
looked straight down 4,000 feet---
quickly stepped far back
to ease my acrophobic anxieties.

Glacier Point

Yosemite National Park

3039.

My mom and I
hiked down 4,000 feet
from Glacier Point to Yosemite Valley;
four miles of rocky trails, scary at times---
thanked her for the great hiking memories.

Bertha June Ast Garofalo (1921-1994)

3040.

the dead man
covered in a white blanket
in his smashed up sport's car
crushed into a tree---
caused by speeding carelessly

3041.

"The long wood winds down banks,
Narrow wood of firs, laurels, and pines.
The town sits like a village,
Red chalets scattered among greenery,
Bathing-stations, white villas.

The dark wood descends from a gorse-covered plain,
Is lost, seen again; it scoops hollows then rises
Green and black, falls away in thin copses.
The graveyard: filtered light bronzes
Sombre vague easy rows of sleep."

- Paul Verlaine, Bournemouth

3042.

Sitting in a low beach chair
wind flipping my brown dry hair,
Secretly sipping whiskey from a cup,
watching footballs soaring high---
knowing summer is ending tonight.

Bolsa Chica Beach, CA

3043.

The Siletz River's wooded and flat farm lands
were a harsh prison for Indians.
Oregon's Native tribes forced to march there
to get them out of white men's hair.
Diaspora, death, injustice, unfair!

Siletz River, Oregon

Confederated Tribes of the Siletz Indians

Confederated Tribes of the Siletz Indians - Wikipedia

3044.

"To the soul
belongs the
self-multiplying
Logos"
Words multiply for new uses.

- Heraclitus, Fragment 115

- A. C. Kirk, Heraclitus: The Cosmic Fragments

3045.

Can't Recall Easily

five decades ago
1976 was new
fresh out of the box
ready to be used---
quickly it flew

Tick-Tock Tractatus

3046.

A Teacher's Part-Time Duties

I stopped the fight,
bear-hugged the wild girl,
got slapped in the ribs,
broke up the scuffle---
thankfully, the School Principal arrived!

Corning Elementary School District, CA
My Job from 1978-2016

3047.

Instant: Zero Millimeters Per No Seconds

An instant has zero duration;
unlike miles per hour
or meters per second.
Even a millisecond is much longer.
An instant, like a point in geometry:
Dimensionless, timeless, imaginary.

Instant

3048.

One Lenten season
I went to church
often to pray---
forty days in 1961
ending on Easter Day.

My final push
of serious piety
for penance for trivial misdeeds
for seeking the mystical keys---
but left me uncomfortably unredeemed.

Lent

3049.

one day is like any other
one hour is likely ignored
one second is rarely noticed---
our senses are limited
our mind ignores overload

- Heraclitus, Fragment 106

- A. C. Kirk, Heraclitus: The Cosmic Fragments

3050.

The elk all huddled
on Fort Bragg or Cannon Beach lawns
quietly breathing, grunting some,
languid, down, resting, sleeping on---
enjoying our hospitality and the sun.

Roosevelt Elk at Fort Bragg

3051.

We started the campfire
added more pine logs
watched the blaze rise
heard it crackle and spark---
Leaping flames in a mysterious night.

Campfires

The Fireplace Records Koan Collection

3052.

"No philosophic proposition outside formal logic
is separable from its semantic means and context."

"Poetry aims to reinvent language, to make it new.
Philosophy labors to make language rigorously
transparent, to purge it of ambiguity and confusion.”

Philosophy and poetry ... style, creativity, literary skill.

- George Steiner,
The Poetry of Thought: From Hellenism to Celan

3053.

Frozen puddles on the ground
a 20 F degrees, more will be found.
As winds scraped the icy glass sidewalks
and hail balls crashed and cracked---
we left our bivouac;
huddled in our small SUV and sat.

3054.

Handsome old man
impeccably dressed
from stylish hat to polished leather shoes---
We chatted about
being in style at our age.

He said he was unwell
at age 72, I was, in contrast,
a chipper fellow at age 80;
encouraging him to be his best.
We smiled, shook hands, parted chums.

3055.

The stairway's wood banister
solid oak shiny smooth
beautiful to look at
and so firm to hold---
walked with me down three flights today.

3056.

A long string of stuck traffic
stopping and starting slowly thru,
deep fog and by stalled trucks,
wet roads and morning commuters---
impatience repressed for job's today.

3057.

"the oracle
neither utters
nor hides
its meaning
but show it by a sign."

- Heraclitus, Fragment 93

- A. C. Kirk, Heraclitus: The Cosmic Fragments

3058.

Vancouver Clinic

Doctor's waiting room:
people checking in, ID's shown,
passing the rigmarole for admission,
paying old bills, sitting and waiting---
dermatology doctors' busy today

3059.

Frozen Fishermen

We caught salmon
in the Sacramento River
on a cold noon in Redding,
my father-in-law and I---
shivering miserably on the boat ride.

Delmer Eubanks caught
the biggest fish he ever caught.
A record for him: 23 pounds.

Redding, California

Sacramento River

Coleman National Fish Hatchery

3060.

Missing a Dog

no nice dog
in our home
to lay down
by our feet---
feeling alone

3061.

More Than I Can Ingest

Biting off more
than I can easily chew,
overconfident through and through.
Suddenly---stopped!
A broken Wisdom Tooth.

3062.

Beggar at the Stop Sign

Fellow at the freeway exit,
in tattered clothes, head bowed,
begging for a dollar or a five---
while cars just pass him on by
heading to work to survive.

3063.

Meaningful Nonsense

"Have unknown words
ever sung on your lips---
accursed tatters of
some meaningless phrase?"
Of course! Yes! Some everyday.

- Stéphan Mallarmé, The Demon of Analogy

3064.

Clear as Iron

Hot as an icicle bicycle
Stable as a surfboard in jello
Fast as a stream flowing uphill
Pure as a sewer in Vancouver---
Clear as a Mallarmé poem.

- Stéphan Mallarmé

3065.

Black Arts

At dusk the tall Douglas Firs'
many branches were Blackest;
outlined by faded pale blue skies---
a blackening inky abstract
painting of firs all awry.

3066.

A Last Memory of Claudia

I talked with her on Monday
She was upbeat, encouraging,
She was positive, confident;
We planned to meet on Friday---
She died on Thursday.

3067.

It scatters
It gathers
It advances
It retires---
What is It?

- Heraclitus, Fragment 91

- A. C. Kirk, Heraclitus: The Cosmic Fragments

Tick-Tock Tractatus

3068.

Time is plotted against changing energy.
Loosing energy, gaining energy,
high tides, low tides,
sunlight, darkness...
How do we measure energy?

3069.

What
the shit
happened
here?
Oh Shit!

3070.

Mountain lake
filled to the brim
little flapping waves
splash my shins---
Mt. Hood snow shines in the sky!

Lost Lake, Oregon

Mt. Hood, Oregon

3071.

"Patients in bleak hospitals
Are racked and thwarted
By false hopes of remission,
Consumed with dread
In midnight's corridor darkness..."

- Paul Verlaine, Snow in the Midst

3072.

Philosophy of Eating

A crow on the fence
looks philosophical.
I suspect, though,
the crow's thinking
about the dead cat on the road.

3073.

A specified/defined event
occurred on Friday
but not on Sunday;
But not at the same time
on the same Tuesday.
(E v ~E) Today
(E ^ ~E) This Week
...... too simplified ......

Tick-Tock Tractatus

3074.

fierce wind in the trees---
unusual but not profound.
Until a squirrel
falls off a branch
mid-argument.

3075.

Five chosen lines
about thin insights
all balanced and neat.
Spilled my cold coffee---
erased some words.

3076.

Time is a child playing house
A child learning to count
A child listening to mom
A child pounding a drum---
And, Time is a Kingly Power.

- Heraclitus, Fragment 52

- A. C. Kirk, Heraclitus: The Cosmic Fragments

3077.

Writing his famous essay
the solitary metaphysician
dabbling in mathematics
unleashing tools of Reason---
never lost his confidence.

3078.

My First College Days

My undergraduate college
Cal State LA, CSULA, located
in East LA on a barren hill
at the end of the Long Beach Freeway.
Where I lived and worked: 1963-1967

Many new influences for
my major changes of mind--
Vietnam War times,
philosophy arrived,
coed campus was really fine.

B. A. Philosophy 1967

CSULA

3079.

Star Power

Famous people in the news
Rising stars in the public's eyes
Marketing budgets advertise
Their successes and busy lives---
Every day a few old stars die.

Fame-Pheme

3080.

Trapped in Place

There is no other life for many
Stuck in a unfortunate place and time,
for which their mind is not aligned,
and their bodies worn out by a daily grind---
they barely survive, leave, or commit suicide.

3081.

Winter

wood door
closed more
locked up
cold out
warm in

3082.

Sleeping Seals

Looked at the sprawled bodies
of the harbor seals on some docks.
Listened to their barking grunts.
Watched them heave and shove.
Sleeping in the noon day sun.

Seals on Docks

3083.

The time sauntered by
invisibly, casually, punctually...
I barely noticed.
so busy with pressing deeds---
time flew by in a gentle breeze.

3084.

Summertime at the sea
Overcrowded, too busy,
Tourist's flock from everywhere,
No privacy, nothing solitary,
Grinding traffic, vacation stress.

3085.

Rather forlorn:
abandoned my plans,
alone with my regrets,
forsook former fantasies---
facing blunt uncolored realities.

3086.

The Way Up and the Way Down Are the Same

We are and are not!
Both true and false,
Both right and wrong
Both silence and song---
And, the changing River flows on.

- Heraclitus, Fragment 69

- A. C. Kirk, Heraclitus: The Cosmic Fragments

3087.

Low Rider classic cars
shining fine, ride a little slower,
bouncing down Whittier Boulevard;
smiling Chicanos on a Sunday cruise.
Cool, very cool, slOwwwwwww....

"take a little trip with me"

Low Rider Cars

Whittier Boulevard

3088.

The Pineapple Express crashed.
Rained for a week.
Six inches deep clean wet,
Dropped on every inch of space---
Puddles everywhere---little lakes.

Pineapple Express

El Nino Weather

3089.

been here before
knew the way
remembered the streets
and buildings arrayed---
marking my inner geography

3090.

Six Dream Songs: Wintu

"Above
above
you and I shall go
you and I shall go
along the Milky Way

along the flowered path,
you and I shall go
picking flowers on our way
you and I shall go
along the Trail of Flowers"

Wintu Native Culture
Northern California

3091.

Reaching the conclusion:
logically, factually
confidently
surely
yes!

Reasoning

3092.

Calling all cars
police radios on---
wild car chase on 101,
from Tillamook to Rockaway,
screaming rubber on the run.

Tillamook, Oregon

Rockaway Beach, Oregon

3093.

Sitting in my easy chair:
Considering the nature of triviality,
Wondering about the bruise on my knee,
Thinking I'd better change my sheets,
Meandering awareness of dust on leaves.

3094.

Open to learning...
Closed to all the TV fluff
owned by the rich oligarchy;
bland trivial commercial stuff.
Turn off the TV! Grow Up!

Television Stuff

3095.

drizzling day
discomforting

wind brings rain
falling sighs

Columbia flowing
listening streams

not intimate, open
feeding all trees

Winter litany
wet dreams

Pineapple Express

El Nino Weather

3096.

The boundaries of the mind are not:
Wider in every direction,
Deeper than the ocean's canyons,
Higher than Anapurna's cliffs---
A mind is contained in a living brain.

- Heraclitus, Fragment 45

- A. C. Kirk, Heraclitus: The Cosmic Fragments

3097.

for a change
after weeks of
steady rain
a clear day---
feeling gay

3098.

Around the corner
Behind the house
In the yard
At her chair---
On his mind

3099.

A muddle of meanings
A jumble of explanations
A bunch of descriptions
A litany of interrogations.
A poet's menagerie of mysteries.

Quintains, Tankas, Pentastichs, and Onions

Original Quintain Poetry By Mike Garofalo

Bundled Up, Volume 1
Quintain Poems 1 - 1,000

Bundled Up, Volume 2
Quintain Poems 1,000 - 1,500

Bundled Up, Volume 3
Quintain Poems 1,500 - 2,000

Bundled Up, Volume 4
Quintain Poems 2,000 - 2,500

Bundled Up, Volume 5
Quintain Poems 2,500 - 3,000

Bundled Up, Volume 6
Quintain Poems 3,000 - 3,500

Quintains - Research

Quintains: 3,000+ Quintains (Free Online)

Quintain Poetry Rhyme Schemes

Quintain Sonnet Forms ( 5252, 554, 555, 553 )

Quintains: Bibliography, Links, Notes

Quintains: Cloud Hands Blog Posts

Poetry - Research

Poetry by Michael P. Garofalo

The Tick-Tock Tractatus

3106.

I was dizzy
turned around
upside down
carnival ride spinning down---
stepped off unsteadily

3107.

"Energy is an Eternal Delight!
And he who desires, but acts not,"
looses the chance to revitalize,
forfeits the simple open opportunity,
to change himself before eternity.

- William Blake

3108.

"Delight is the innocent joy arising
with the perception and realization of
the wonderful, empty, intricate,
inter-penetrating,
mutually-embracing, shining
single world beyond all discrimination
or opposites."

- Gary Snyder, On "As for Poets"

William Blake

3109.

"Delight is the sophisticated joy arising
with the perception and realization of
the wonderful, replete, intricate,
rich-reflecting,
uniquely aloof, polychrome
complex worlds beyond all indifference
to nuances."

- Edward Schafer

3110.

brown branchlets
bouncing up and down
dancing to wind songs...
A large branch broke and dropped!
Change is not an illusion.

Illusion

3111.

"Out in the current in the storm
The child clings tight to his mother
Who no longer knows what nor where...
Nor anything. Half-crazed her hopes lie
in the current in the storm."

- Paul Verlaine, A Widower Speaks

3112.

It, whatever, works for me now
May not work for me tomorrow; or
By working with Others, Thou,
We find new ways of working
Together Now Anyhow!

3113.

"Alas! I have nor hope nor health,
Nor peace within or calm around,
Nor that content surpassing wealth
The sage in meditation found,
And walked with inward glory crowned---

Nor fame, nor power, nor love, nor leisure.
Others I see whom these surround---
Smiling they live, and call life pleasure;---
To me that cup has been dealt in another measure.

Percy Bysshe Shelley, Written in Dejection, Near Naples

3114.

She covered the soup bowl
with a glass lid Fliegenglocke,
to keep it warm, and
to keep bugs out---
no need for freeing a fly.

PI #309

3115.

What was God doing
before he made the Earth, or
before he made Heaven or Hell?
How in hell can anyone answer sensibly?
Speculation is pure fantasy.

Even God can't remember
what He did back then.

3116.

Horses prefer hay
Otters like fish
People enjoy wheat
Birds flavor worms---
Food over copper.

- Heraclitus, Fragment 9

- A. C. Kirk, Heraclitus: The Cosmic Fragments

3117.

Delight in Nature

"Isn't it lovely
the little river cutting through the gorge
when you approach it slowly
while trout are standing
behind stones in the stream?"

- Inuit Poem

3118.

Lost too much sleep
over DTrump's stupidity,
his failed tough guy policies,
his demented rants and sexual perversity---
Muslims placed a price on his dead head!

3119.

If my dog could talk
my mind would stop, shocked,
I could not understand his barks--
but we already communicated quite well
before he began to talk.

PI, II, p. 223
"If a lion could talk,
We would not understand him."

3120.

All the facts available
Say the past was/is the case.
The World of Facts is our place,
For now, at least, for
All of tomorrow is not the case.

Tick-Tock Tractatus

3121.

Stolen Verses

"The future is a rumor. The present is a fact that I can't touch.

The mind wanders. The feet follow. Eventually they agree on a direction.

Nothing lasts. Not even the fear that nothing lasts. Relief.

I shed old versions of myself. Some cling. Some thank me.

Five lines are enough to say something true
and too few to pretend I know something more."

3122.

Close to the heart, internalized,
A memorized meaningful poem.
Recited faithfully as a prayer,
A spoken ritual of deep care,
Spreading my spirit in pure air.

Not a tale told by idiots,
signifying nothing.

Cosmic Connections: Poetry in the Age of Disenchantment.
By Charles Taylor, 2024

3123.

dying slowly
my dear old dad
congestive heart failure
really bad
our hospital talks very sad

3124.

boxes on the table
both brown and blue
some heavy some light
ready to be opened
goodies to review

3125.

time out
whistle screech
playing is stopped
players huddle
coaches teach

3126.

The call of unreason
Intentions to confuse
Ideas to disabuse
Facts to deny---
laughter about the news

3127.

I can know much about the future
without certainty about many things/events
and certainly about contingent events/things
and certainly not about everything---
I'm content, for now, planning a trip next Spring.

3128.

supposing the box was empty
supposing the ideas were false
supposing his check bounced
supposing the paint had dried---
suppositions on a ride

3129.

Before you answer---
What is the question?
Is another question even better?
Is another answer even needed?
Pointless questions, strange answers.

3130.

What is good for us
We might not do.
Steeped in laziness:
Is it the opposite
which is easy for me to do?

- Heraclitus, Fragment 8

- A. C. Kirk, Heraclitus: The Cosmic Fragments

3131.

my identity
exists for me
resting on the shoulders
of my memories
substantially

A Gardener's Sutra on Time, Part 2.1

3132.

"There is no there there"
For the Present is aware, that
the Past is no more, only
my obscure faded memories;
just nothing left here anymore.

- Gertrude Stein

3133.

He crossed over
She stayed back
They watched anxiously
We waited on pins and needles
---Pricked by fear---

3134.

morning meal

banana yellow round
bowl of fruit, no sound.
Nuts, seeds, jerky soft,
paper napkin to clean my lips,
jasmine tea slowly sipped

3135.

authentic fakes
ingratiate
stylish popinjays
impressive clever displays
captivate and fool us today

3136.

cartloads of letters
mailed to me
requesting donations, Please,
for worthy charities---
so many real needs...

3137.

'Is' is an insistent perplexity
of sometimes being identity
of sometimes being temporarily
of sometimes being actuality
Yes!, 'is' even postulates = equality.

3138.

What is not the case
We can think a little about:
my house is a little mouse,
my ear smells the cooking pot,
our language is a spinning top.

3139.

The slender Rogue River
flows to Golds Beach
on its western slow roll
tumbling over boulders---
rafters bounce with glee.

Rogue River

Golds Beach, Oregon

Rafting the Rogue

3140.

Hand Injured

Suddenly, she injured her thumb,
Her hand began swelling up,
Bruising spread past her wrists,
Her fingers were hurting and stiff---
What caused all this?

- Vancouver, WA 2026

3141.

Ready to Walk

Ready to get up now,
put on socks and shoes,
open my door, walk outside,
     smell the dark damp ground,
          walk slowly—listen to city sounds.

3142.

"Before and now seems infinite though encircled by gradual doubts
Of whatever came over us, Perhaps the old chic was less barren,
More something to be looked forward to, that this
Morning in the orchards under an unclouded sky,
This painful freshness of each thing being exactly itself."

- John Ashbery, Voyage in the Blue

3143.

The cello music
clearly spoke to me
Rhythmically, emotionally,
About loneliness and fate;
Yes, I did somehow translate.

3144.

The distance between now
and never again is finite.

The distance between the past
and the future is infinite.

Distances are measurable
by definition.

Twenty four hours is = an Earth Day
by definition.

Begin with assumptions and definitions.

3145.

Fewer Days Ahead

Frustration with aging
affects persons differently.
Some say getting old is a crime.
Others say they got wiser in time---
Most others are uneasy subconsciously.

3146.

Our naive perceptions of Time,
Sequenced cause-effect Directionality,
Time headed south for sleepy entropy--
Was this merely my subjective Kantian processing;
or is it true of Nature's own activities?

- Immanuel Kant

Kantian Space and Time

Kant holds that we can't have any experience
unmediated by our internal mental temporal
modes of being and understanding.

3147.

You can add up time
You can squander time
You can divide up time
You can wait for the right time
Does not really make sense at times.

Time Out!!
Makes sense in a soccer game context.

TTT = 9.3.5.1

3148.

"To find my home in one sentence, concise,
as if hammered in metal. Not to enchant anybody.
Not to earn a lasting name in posterity.
An unnamed need for order, for rhythm, for form,
which three words are opposed to chaos and nothingness."

- Coleslaw Milosz, My-Ness

3149.

Not the fault of teachers
that so many American's read so poorly (6th grade).
Many Americans are just lazy dumb-nuts
From too much TV and sleepy beer minds
Proud of their common-folk uneducated minds.

Beavis and Butthead and Archie Bunker kinds.

3150.

Bonsai exhibit:
gravel paths
fine wood tables, Trees,
fine pots, Art;
beauty in miniature.

Tacoma Bonsai Gardens

3151.

My wife is 78. I am 80.
As of March 17, 2026: St. Patrick's Day.
We have been married for 59 years.

Everyone is dated, time stamped, Uniquely
Identified: Name and Birth date.

TTT = 15.5.1

Personal Identification

3152.

Pulling Onions Again in 2011

3153.

Artificial Intelligence is unquestionably amazing
but enormous Data Centers are a threat,
Seriously --- environmentally, intellectually,
and economically --- And we Need
to proceed cautiously, stop, and evaluate.

Artificial Intelligence AI

Data Centers

{AI Data Centers are now known to overuse
and pollute local water supplies, over use
electricity at subsidized rates, cause workers
to loss jobs, and disrupt local services and the
environment.}

3154.

The Time Has Come for Change

He forgot what time it was
And arrived to late to catch the train
To join his wife in Bellingham.
It screwed up his day, he had more to pay,
He was late for meetings later that day.

Time is money - early or late.

Bellingham, Washington

Time is Money

Time Management

3155.

Give it some time, be patient:
More facts will arrive soon,
More information will come,
More reasons will be forthcoming---
We never have all the facts.

3156.

we talked
sun slipped away
street glowed dark
the scent of roses
on our walk

3157.

her old doll
in a box
in the attic
in the dark---
forgotten playing

3158.

The moon is new every month
The sun is new every day
My body is new every hour
Time is new every few minutes.
Consciousness is new every 3 seconds

- Heraclitus, Fragment 6

- A. C. Kirk, Heraclitus: The Cosmic Fragments

3159.

cold moon
winter night
wordless mind
no delight
dull time

3160.

If
we knew the answer
we would answer.
But, we don't---
Too bad we can't.

3161.

Last night fishing
near Memaloose Point;
Lantern glowing in the inky dark
stinking liver in our bait box---
roving ghosts singing Chinook songs.

Memaloose Point, Tillamook Bay, OR

Memaloose Ilahee", the Chinook Jargon for "land of the dead".

3162.

Lost Tonight

I called his bluff
won the last hand
with a full-house---
Overall, bad cards for me
Tonight; I mostly lost.

3163.

The Smell of Failures

Nothing could remove
the stain of sinful failures
the shame of acts regretted
the loss of any real good character---
the jail cell smelled of shit.

3164.

She did not care who listened
To her mumbling and her rants
From her street corner pulpit
Her words were echoed off vacant walls;
Nobody listening at 3 am.

3165.

Secrets

We had no secrets
we thought honesty
hiding was anathema
lying was a crime---
something sneaky surfaced suddenly!

3166.

"Driving the 80 East, on the Bryte Bend bridge
high over the Sacramento River
wind-whipped by passing bigrigs,
thinking of nigh herons
in a leafy palace, deep shade, by a pool.

- Gary Snyder, Night Herons

3167.

Illusions of Instability

Changes come, Changes go
Different features for the Whole
Stability of Being floats on instability
Like rocking boats on a moody sea---
Change is the illusory world we create to see.

TTT = 5.6.3.1

Illusions

Impermanence - Change

3168.

I have not painter's perspectives,
No artist's visual vocabulary,
No sculptor's nimble chisels,
No art historian's expertise---
I need to learn more ways to see.

3169.

While she slept
it steadily snowed;
she was naked
under bed blankets warm---
her blue bedroom was cold.

3170.

The sonnets sang romantic tunes.
The ballads sang of courage and death.
The limericks spoke of sin and grin.
The haiku kept insights to a minimum.

I read warnings about the dying Earth.

{I've read mostly non-fiction my entire life.}

3171.

3172.

I was thinking about
what to say this oddball day
about hardly anything interesting
that steadily came my way---
Well? Nothing much to say.

3173.

The dripping leaves dried.
Water soaked down in the brown ground.
The gray clouds flew to The Dalles.
The sun shined on Mt. Saint Helen's snowy crown.
The Columbia River filled and flowed.

The Dalles, Oregon

Mt. Saint Helen's, Washington

The Columbia River

3174.

Enigmas buttress the irrational
Undermine the bastions of the rational
Tickle the toes of Mr. Logical
Box the ears of the scientific radicals---
Don't know where I am going with this...

3175.

The lamp carried on
All night and day
And did its job.
So I could read with light
and glasses always on.

3176.

There are places
where no human has been
but the wilderness is disappearing
from humans closing in---
they will eat it all till its all gone!

Overpopulation

3177.

A bag of concrete
poured in post holes I dug,
packed and watered in,
hardened in days---
a clever Syrian-Greek invention

Concrete

3178.

Our Bombs Killed School Children

I prefer decent smart strong dyslexic Gavin Newsom,
Over a dirty weak demented Donald Bumpkin Trump.
And all the bad American MAGA news of 2005-2006
will be talked about in 2036;
when Donald and I are dead and gone.

3179.

Just a brief life there
Just a month living here
Just a minute after it ended
Just a second, gone in a blink.
Just an empty instant, Zero. Deceased!

3180.

I wanted to watch the sun rise
Over Mt. Lassen's stony crown
And the warmth to soon settle down
On the olive trees in Corning orchards---
black ripe olives swelling riper now.

Corning, California (1998-2017)

Olive Groves

Mt. Lassen

3181.

As my ears
turn to the
wind in the drying cottonwood leaves;
I feel the autumn
in the sizzling summer.

3182.

A time to seek and a time to loose,
A time to laugh and a time to weep,
A time to dance and a time to mourn,
A time to speak and a time to be silent.
Not a time for every purpose of evil men.

"Ecclesiastes" 3:1-8

3183.

I believe that this earth exists
outside of my thinking blips...
And the tiny minim DB mites
that live in my eyelids
can't be seen, but exist tonight.

Philosophical Realism

Demodex blepharitis mites

3184.

A man who claims to fear nothing
is a dangerous fellow
and a liar to boot...
A modicum of justified fear
Is common amongst kindly folks.

3185.

my old car
could not stop
on the road, 101,
pulled along by the sun

Fossil Fuels

3186.

The clock on the garage wall
Stopped working months ago;
Timelessly stuck on 12 to 4.
Needs a new battery:
Time requires Energy.

3187.

I belong to infinity
intimately every day
Inside a Milky Way Galaxy
where Gravity with space-time plays...
Infinity in instants, that's me.

3188.

Brown-tinted Pacific sea nettle jellies,
Leathery gumboot chitons,
Small blue-brown Velella velella,
Mole crabs in the swirling surf sands.
The shoreline pebbles and rocks all slimed.

Velella velella

3189.

"What history fails to mention is

Most everybody lived their lives
With friends and children, and played it cool;
Left truth and beauty to the guys
Who tricked for bigshots, and were fools."

- Gary Snyder, What History Fails

3190.

My prayers were not answered;
But, never mind.
Their intention was pure,
Generous, giving, good, kind...
I will try again --- that's right.

3191.

"Remember, remember the circle of the sky
the stars and the brown eagle
the supernatural winds
breathing night and day
from the four directions

Remember, remember the great life of the sun
breathing on the earth
it lies upon the earth
to bring out life upon the earth
life covering the earth

Remember, remember the sacredness of things
running streams and dwellings
the young within the nest
a hearth for sacred fire
the holy flame of fire."

Pawnee, Osage, Omaha Indian Song

Earth Prayers

3192.

The ticking of the metronome:
It's a lie told by a machine.
My heartbeat
     is a truth
          told by my body.

3193.

Long ago I wondered why
the seas were rising worldwide
the droughts were increasing stateside
the population exploded in a decade's time
the world was headed to catastrophe.

Paul Ehrlich, The Population Bomb 1968

3194.

Our speed is measured
Our departures clocked
Our arrivals scheduled
Our travels were planned---
We tourists took our time.

3195.

The electric clock is like a virtual monk
     counting the rosary beads of the void.

The sundial is a machine that works
     by doing nothing.

Time immediately mediates our perceptual
     faculties and ways of thinking.

The present is the only coordinate that
     does not require a compass.

Time is the grammar that allows
     our lives to make sense.

3196.
Similes for Eternity

To be still is to hear the gears
of the world grinding against the Dark.

A minute is a small room
with one peephole window
and two doors.

3197.

One solution of mine
in the 1967-1977 time
was to ride
a Honda 90cc motorcycle
to work every day for a decade.

Staying small is often wise.

3198.
Similies Beauty Undefined

The past is like a heavy wet wool jacket,
beautiful to look at, but
difficult to move in.

A minute is a small room
with one peephole window
and two doors.

3199.

Later, he said
He will return again
To finish the job, and
Clean up the mess---
He never came back. Ripped-Off!

3200.

Do No Harm:
Write a poem
Water your yard
Hug a child
Pat your dog

3201.

Still chilly in April,
sunshine served wit iced lemon tea,
warm French bread in olive oil and balsam dipped,
cold turkey with mayo on rye bread---
multidimensionality so tasty.

3202.

I was impatient
She could see:
grumpy grimaces, deep sighs,
checking clocks, changing posture,
complaining, acting annoyed,
sitting stuck in useless time.

3203.

"I don't come here after June when rattlesnakes
come out of caves and snore on stones
along the stream, though trout and trout remain
and I am keen to harm. Yellow bells have fangs
and jack pines rattle in the slightest wind."

- Richard Hugo, Taneum Creek

3204.

Two eyes for seeing.
One eye for looking outside.
One eye for looking inside.
Best to use both eyes seeings
To create a synthesis of our reality.

3205.

Time flows at different speeds
Time passed slowly for me
Time opened the future for us at dusk
Time marched to some unknown---
It this just fantasy, or is it reality.

Quintains, Tankas, Pentastichs, and Onions

Original Quintain Poetry By Mike Garofalo

Bundled Up, Volume 1
Quintain Poems 1 - 1,000

Bundled Up, Volume 2
Quintain Poems 1,000 - 1,500

Bundled Up, Volume 3
Quintain Poems 1,500 - 2,000

Bundled Up, Volume 4
Quintain Poems 2,000 - 2,500

Bundled Up, Volume 5
Quintain Poems 2,500 - 3,000

Bundled Up, Volume 6
Quintain Poems 3,000 - 3,500

Quintains - Research

Quintains: 3,000+ Quintains (Free Online)

Quintain Poetry Rhyme Schemes

Quintain Sonnet Forms ( 554, 5252, 555, 553 )

Quintains: Bibliography, Links, Notes

Quintains: Cloud Hands Blog Posts

Poetry - Research

Poetry by Michael P. Garofalo

The Tick-Tock Tractatus

3206.

Even the gods can't change the past
The past is fixed,
mostly forgotten;
often reinterpreted.

The hidden past
buried in the avalanche of years.
The worn monuments celebrating
pioneers and our versions of their history.

3207.

The future has not any hands.
It holds nothing,
it just waits and stands.

He holds his bus ticket in his fist;
Waiting for the crowded bus at Station 6.

3208.

Paul Straffa brushed his fingers
under his chin with an
outward sweep of the finger tips
of one hand
with the middle finger raised.
What is the grammar of this gesture.
Wittgenstein was perplexed!

{FUCK You liar demented DTrump!
Understood by me and others.}

PI vi

3209.

What is time? What do we mean by 'time'?
A noun or a verb?
Absolute or relative?
Static or changing?

Does the universe have an opinion?

3210.

She cashed in her winning paper stubs,
a measly $29.00 today.
After spending her social-security check
for a casino gambling-drug-fix;
She walked away complaining about Woke.

3211.

"Don't you like people?" he rudely asked me.
"Do you mean all people, some, or one?"
I inquired, politely.
"All people" he demanded!
"Only some people, like you" I replied.

3212.

Chuck Norris and Sylvester Stallione
two hunky kick-ass actors
doing choreographed displays of 'masculinity'
solving problems by knockout or kill;
Probably dull conservatives in ordinary reality.

3213.

drop dead ugly
dog on a leash
happy as a cat
crossing the street---
loved not the least

3214.

Beware of repeating yourself.
Beware of listening to others
repeating versions of what you believe.
Beware of wasting your precious time
on a cellphone or a TV.

3215.

The past is not a hitching post;
It's a signpost or a guide post.

Music is used to manipulate time.

3216.

Mom

Bertha June Ast Garofalo
April 3, 1921 -- February 12, 1994
Born in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio
Her father was Robert Ast.
Her brother was Bob Ast-Blaize

Family moved to Los Angeles in 1928.
Her Mother, Mabel, married Roy Blaze.
She grew up with three brothers: Bob, Bill, Eugene.
She graduated from George Washington High School.

She married Michael James Garofalo in 1943.
We lived in Bandini, ELA, 1944-1964.
She was a hardworking housewife and mother.
She cooked Midwest style, Italian, and Mexican foods.
She taught us how to live properly and be good persons.

She raised three boys: Michael, Paul and Philip.
Sent her children to St. Alphonsus Catholic School.

Karen, Alicia, June

She lived in Hacienda Heights, 1964-1994.
She did not drive until she was 55.
She had many friends in the St. John Vianny Women's Guild.
She traveled the USA in a trailer with my dad.
She went on all our camping trips. She was a walker.
Karen and I lived next door and helped care for mom and dad.
She helped her grandchildren 1982-1994.
She loved reading mystery, suspense, and American West novels.
She was more a Lutheran than a Catholic.
She suffered from and died from bowel cancer in 1994.
My dad died from heart disease and stroke in 1996.

We sold the Hacienda Heights house in 1997.
Karen and I moved to Red Bluff in April of 1998.

3217.

"I pant for the music which is divine,
My heart in its thirst is a dying flower;
Pour forth the sound like enchanted wine,
Loosen the notes in a silver shower;
Like a herbless plain, for the gentle rain,
I gasp, I faint, till they wake again."

Percy Bysshe Shelley, Music

3218.

The crisp shirt of mind
Is wrinkled by time
Is dirtied by lies
Is ripped up by fate---
But can't wait or hesitate.

3219.

Reality does not "just happen"
like snow in Vermont, or
like sunshine in Death Valley---
It spills from our stupidity; from
Our selfish mendacity.

3220.

yawning at midnight
mind awakens as moonlight
bright against the frame 0f starlight;
wondering why it is not right to
send Marines to die in Iran tonight.

USA/Israel Attack Iran Alone 2025-2026

3221.

In the Future
Some will live a Real Creatures;
More will life as mere Machines
Who have lost their Souls for Free.
Which will You Be?

3222.

Watching others stare at cellphone screens
charmed like cobras in a basket
glued to the screen like moss on a tree
stuck wandering aimlessly in a virtual scene
immersed in trivia and silly sales memes.

3223.

Analyze the complex
into its simpler components
step by step...
Then, use intuitive understanding
to go from the simple to the knowledge of all.

- Renée Descartes

Intuition

3224.

"I am hungry."
Expresses feelings of my body
and for now
a truth that results in eating.
For A. J. Ayer, no proposition here. Baloney!

- A. J. Ayer, Language, Truth, and Logic

3225.

Detect from the narcissus its yellow,
Intuit from his grimaced cries of pain,
Take the music from the sounds,
Solve the question from the evidence,
Deduct plans from a calendar.

3226.

For what persons had rather or wish
be true,
or favor what once was like this case,
they would readily rather
believe as true, despite the evidence.

- Frances Bacon

3227.

Some situations resonate,
Deep down they keenly vibrate,
Attuning our thoughts to integrate,
Connecting past-future repeated states;
with poems and songs, our consciousness resonates.

Resonate

Vibration

3228.

There is no
non-arbitrary way
to pick out what is meant by the
uniquely true
and real present moment.

Adrain Bardon,
A Brief History of the Philosophy of Time, p. 91

3229.
Time After Time
Sung by Cindi Lauper

"Lying in my bed
I hear the clock tick and think of you
Caught up in circles
Confusion is nothing new
Flashback, warm nights
Almost left behind
Suitcase of memories
Time after time

Sometimes, you picture me
I'm walking too far ahead
You're calling to me
I can't hear what you've said
Then you say, "Go slow"
I fall behind
The second hand unwinds

After my picture fades
And darkness has turned to gray
Watching through windows
You're wondering if I'm okay
Secrets stolen from deep inside
And the drum beats out of time

If you're lost, you can look, and you will find me
Time after time
If you fall, I will catch you, I'll be waiting
Time after time"

3230.

I walked two miles in one hour.

And the Earth rotates at 1,000 MPH.
And the Earth flies at 67,000 MPH.
And our Solar system files at 514,000 MPH.

So, how fast was I really walking?

A Gardener's Sutra on Time, Part 2.1

3231.

moving slowly
woke up around noon
after ten hours of sleep
deeply moved---
awake now in keen consciousness...

Sipped coffee, stared at the firs,
watched squirrel acrobats play,
list to Adam Hurst's cello Obscura tracks,
thought about Portland poet's past.

Sunday...

3232.

Camping at Potholes

dark messages from sagebrush hills
carried by whooshing winds of bitter
cold warnings of snow to come
to creatures hiding in rocky holes
and poet's shivering in tiny tents.

Potholes State Park, Washington

3233.

Time shows it sense
In everything we know and sense.
Time ain't true or false
Winter comes on time, never faults---
My old photographs fade over time.

3234.

Parked in the concrete underground near
Powell's Books
in Portland's downtown;
Browsed for hours---
few places to sit down.

Powell's Books, Portland, Oregon

3235.

Lined up the chore tasks,
ordered them, prioritized them, analyzed them;
gathered up my energies,
put on my working clothes and shoes;
got up and got them done.

3236.

suffering
sobering
frightening
depressing---
Peace-Health Hospital Cancer Center.

3237.

The climbing rose
climbed up the rope
up to the rooftop gutter---
twirling up the feel the sun
leaving the shaded wall behind.

3238.

Quinault Red Cedar
grew 150 feet in centuries;
blown down in a 2019 storm,
cracked down, partly dead,
left to rot and keep insects fed.

3239.

The Raven Broke Open the Magical Clam

qwaxwqx ?astaw s?axu tas?
asutelciba cicaxw tebixw

The Raven Broke Open the Magical Clam
An Amazing New World then Began

In the Time Before Everything Changed
the Transformers and Changers
lived in the Ocean's Womb
before the Waters receded.
Then They Came, and Everything Changed.

The Raven Broke Open the Magical Clam.
An Amazing New World then Began.
Both inside and outside the Magical Clam
Coming Forth, Coming From, Coming, coming—

Then They Came, and Everything Changed.
People and new plants were created.
New mosses, mushrooms, camas bulbs,
and huckleberries appeared.
New cedars, spruces, firs,
and salal berries appeared.
The San Juan Islands, Hood Fjord,
Salish Seas and King Salmon appeared.
Enemies, diseases, and famine appeared.

People learned from the Transformers/Changers/Teachers:
Raven, Coyote, Honne, Xwane, Turtle,
Bear and Thunderbird.
How to become Human Beings
in a dangerous World.
How to become heartless at times.
How to gather, hunt, and fish for food.
How to weave and keep a fire.
What plants to eat, what not.
What to Believe and Do
in order for their tribe to survive.
How to deal with surprise.

All kinds of beings emerged-created.
People lived, worked, Spoke and mated.

Coyote howled and cheered!
Thunderbird ordered the rain and thunder.
Shape-Shifters played and plundered.
Xwane saved two girls from blunders.
Xonne stopped a flood.

The Magical Clam: A Singularity Opening,
Beginnings Beyond the Understanding
Of Ordinary Times and Minds.

From Something New Came Something New.

The Raven cawed, gurred, mmmured, croaked
then hid in trees away from folks.

Then They Came, and Everything Changed.
The English speaking people came to Reign.

3240.

Pismo Beach trailer park
packed full of old folks
    huddling in their metal box
from dawn to dark;
    never going beach combing.

3241.

"As Eliza stood twanging her zither
She beheld a vast sea serpent slither,
Oozing slime, up the beach
Till it came within reach
And she disappeared, no one knows whither."

- X. J. Kennedy

3242.

Downtown Vancouver
     few places to park
expensive parking fees
     for slices of space—
          so I walked farther.

3243.

he handed me
a handsome Buck
pocket knife—
          a birthday gift
for an 80 year life

3244.

Ticks are bugs that live in a clock.

Time flies when you wear a watch
on an airplane ride.

It's time-consuming to eat a whole month.

Why did he shoot the lion? To kill some time.

The present is skating on thin ice.

3245.

Bonsai pot empty
        twisted tree died—
judging nursery plants
for appropriateness
for a new bonsai.

3246.

        Blind Milton
    feared execution
for advocating the death
of King Charles the First.
God Save the King mobs at his door.

3247.

Time is an emotion.
Set things in motion.
Stops beings in motion.
Open up strong emotions---
Waiting is an emotion.

"Emotion: to move out, move away,
to stir up, agitate."
Klein's Dictionary, LP#47

3248.

Hickory-Dickery-Dock,
hub-bub at the clock,
the clock struck ten
the cuckoo cuckooed, and then,
I wound the cuckooing clock.

3249.

Yes, I do talk nonsense,
and intentionally at times,
exploring fictional examples,
and poetry without reason or rhyme---
to squeeze open my mind.

{And pay attention to my nonsense!}

3250.

Time is a function of longevity
Less longevity is less time,
Longevity is about You, Your Time...
Future orientated, realistic thinking, and
Conscientiousness, all prioritize longevity.

3251.

Crypt of the Capuchin Monks

The skulls and bones filled the walls,
Whole skeletons of children were hung askew,
The bony fingers of women decorated the altar...
And words were etched into the tile wall,
A message for the living, it called:

"What you are, they once were.
What they are, you will be."

3252.

Being or Becoming:
Options too few.

beings and becomings
Elements rearranging
Things the same and something new

3253.

I was called to walk
the day was new;
frost on rooftops, fog in view---
wool coat over my clothes,
snot dripping down my nose.

Doggerel Verse

3254.

Empedocles raised the Flags of Plurality;
Of Earth, Air, Fire, and Water;
Existence exemplified, natural essences underlie.
But explanations did not satisfy,
Empedocles jumped in lava - a suicide?

- Empedocles

Pluralism

3255.

The Elements do not die
And they in eternal time realize
a billion interactions in a second's time
a trillion interrelations in a millisecond of time...
I breathe the breaths of all past lives.

Elements of Chemistry

Pluralism

Diversity

Complexity

3256.

I'm not fond of coteries
of people writing poetry;
patting each other
gently on their poetic backs---
not my path to my poetic productivity.

3257.

I am rarely pleased
by the death of people
I and others despise---
And, unfortunately, their ignorant beliefs
and evils do still survive.

3258.

Alone or In A Group

Poetry is often best for me
reading alone on some winter's eve
while pure rain drips down from trees;
accentuating subtlety, revealing mystery,
opening new understandings in me.

Poetry readings in a big public scene
At Open Mic and featuring
Published poets selling chapbooks
Or, local poets sharing their poems for free---
Always more emotional for the listening me.

The Words live, in person, said;
The Words read, from a book, alone.
The impact of live performances
The energy of live audiences---
Does clapping confirm assent?

The Public Scene:
new places, new stages, new people,
music, singing, acting, performing,
dramatic reading, memorized skits,
lighting, drinking, seeing, hearing...
Not the same as that silent winter's eve.

3259.

Time passes past the past,
No forensic evidence remains,
No clue to catch that thief of time---
Little evidence, so suspicious,
Is nowhere and everywhere.

3260.

The mind stands
over our fading memories
like a forest stands
over its former fallen trees---
just life, no ceremonies.

3261.

A wave breaks on the rocks
Splits apart in a thousand drops.
Nothing added today,
Nor taken away---
The Ocean stays, and stays, and stays.

3262.

3:05 am: Wide Awake!!
Tired body, active mind,
reading-writing intertwined,
not the healthiest, but---
I don't give a shit this time.

3263.

My mom said "stop time"
we listened
we did not move
time stopped...
anticipating changes.

3264.

I arrived on time,
actually 10 minutes before,
being conscientiously punctual,
a reliable on-time guy...
Time shrugged, didn't care.

3265.

The clock in the classroom
Worked hard diligently
To avoid the Present;
Never stopped...
Tick - happens. Tock - happens.

An hour passed,
Left no forwarding address.
Tomorrow dreams of Yesterday.
Today forgets both...
Tick - silence. Tock - silence.

3266.

Time is a river
Time is a clock
The river questions this
But not the clock.
Nobody agrees.

3267.

Can the bell sing
before it is struck?
Can infants think
before they can talk?
Think before you Speak!

Paradoxes

3268.

I watched the monks everyday
As they walked across the USA
Three months of 3,000 miles on the Way
Encouraging Peaceful-Mindfullness every day.
Thousands gathered, walked, and prayed.

Monks March for Peace 2025-2026
Walking daily from Texas to Washington D.C.

3269.

Our notions of time and time-games,
hang on the changing vocabularies
we/I/you/us choose to use
in a strong logic of description-depiction
of the actual flow of time under our shoes.

3270.

I accept that the world exists,
other minds exist, and that I am
relatively free of a fixed destiny.
But, it's not knowing it's true;
Coherence requires often just accepting.

Tractatus Philosophical Poeticus, by Signe Gjessing

3271.

"There's a thread you follow. I goes among
things that change. But it doesn't change.
People wonder about what you are pursuing.
You have to explain about the thread.
But it is hard for others to see.

While you hold it you can't get lost.
Tragedies happen; people get hurt
or die; and you suffer and get old.
Nothing you do can stop time's unfolding.
You don't ever let go of the thread."

- William Stafford, The Way It Is

Greek Moirai: The Fates

3272.

Oftentimes I slip from reasoning
into paradoxical wittiness or raillery,
contradicting myself foolishly,
bending the truth metaphorically,
failing to make a point, even obliquely.

3273.

"All of a sudden..."
spikes our interests
keeps us in suspense
gets us afraid---
all of a sudden

3274.

Facts about things are useful indeed
"Facts" are said by both who and when
"Truths about time" became falsehoods now.
The Thing-Totality of Our World
Is Shown, not said; but translated by "facts."

3275.

Look Up! At tree tops,
at brick buildings sky high,
at billowing white clouds floating by,
at ducks in squadrons flying side by side;
lift your bent head, let you gaze arise.

Look Up! Raise you head and eyes,
don't let staring at your steps mesmerize
all your lack of attention all the time.
Lift your bowed head to realize, shockingly,
The Yaquina Lighthouse is off tonight.

3276.

Magical incantations and old rituals
are fine for occasional fun,
a nod to the past; but, rather dumb.
If you think and believe this
as religion or spiritual technology:
From that you should flee and run.

3277.

Immensity
illumines intensity,
concentrated calmly
inside infinite intricacies,
meaningful to me

3278.

If rational self-interest is primarily
one's approach to everything, then
Stop to think about helping, love, care,
compassion, generosity, sharing, friendship,
and other goods to expand your vocabulary.

3279.

We ain't cool. We
Went to school. We

Never late. We
Studied straight. We

Worked hard. We Went...

3280.

statues-kitsch-trinkets, souvenirs
adorn the bookshelves at our home,
symbols-signs for many memories
shelved in our minds museum
displayed outwardly for us to see.

3281.

"Go, little book, and wish to all
Flowers in the garden, meat in the hall,
A bit of wine, a spice of wit,
A house with lawns enclosing it,
A living river by the door,
A nightingale in the sycamore."

- Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894), Wishes

3282.

I was raised on doctrines of progress;
Striving always to be better, to improve.
Then I read about Beatniks in Venice Beach
And Hippies in Frisco or on Oregon farms.
Progress is delaying what is good.

The mythology of progress
is exploitive to be sure.

3283.

Burnt Norton

"Time present and time past
Are both perhaps present in time future,
And time future contained in time past.
If all time is eternally present
All time is unredeemable.

What might have been is an abstraction
Remaining a perpetual possibility
Only in a world of speculation.
What might have been and what has been
Point to one end, which is always present.

Footfalls echo in the memory
Down the passage which we did not take
Towards the door we never opened
Into the rose-garden.
My words echo Thus, in your mind."

T. S. Eliot, Four Quartets 1: Burnt Norton

3284.

Don't give me that old-time religion,
not good enough for me or thee.
We ain't no po' sinners!
Swing low, sweet 30's Ford.
I never felt like a motherless child.
Everybody knows the trouble we had.

3285.

Round and round old Joe Clark,
Oh my darling Clementine
You got to walk that lonesome valley
To a home on the range where the cattle all roam
And dere's no hidin' place down dere.

3286.

"O Lady
the hem of whose garment
is the sky, whose grace
falls from her glance, who gives
life from the touch of one finger."

- Diane De Prima

Earth Prayers

Speaking to the Goddess

Goddesses

3287.

The mocking-bird said so,
Repeatedly said so,
For us to be advised:
Our children are leaving!
Ai-yi-ya-yai ... Ai-yi-ya-yai

3288.

"A kind in glass and a cousin, a spectacle and
nothing strange a single hurt color
and an arrangement in a system to pointing.
All this and not ordinary, not unordered in not resembling.
The difference is spreading."

- Gertrude Stein, A Carafe, that is a Blind Glass

3289.

A Mountain Ghost-Dance Song

Rocks are ringing in the mountains
The whirlwind sweeps the mountains
Glaciers slide down the mountains
Forests and streams surround the mountains
The Milky Way frames the mountains

Ghosts Dance inside the mountains.
Ro'ráni, Ro'ráni ... Ro'ráni, Ro'ráni,

3290.

Michael Rowed the boat ashore
when John Henry was a baby.
Jimmy cracked corn for the blue tail fly.
Down in the valley, Valley so low...
Lay down boys and take a little nap,
fourteen miles to the Cumberland Gap.

3291.

No leaf moved
No bird sang
No trace of dawn
Nobody around ...
A December campground

Four Days in Grayland

3292.

After Lightening

"For all we know, we could be
already crystal motes, shattered
by swift and quick surging light.
We would never be certain if we
had a chance at all,

only settled
a vast moment later into dim shadow,
gradually blending into the prairie,
the low hills, the horizon ours now.
The moment before always too late."

- Simon J. Ortiz, Acoma Pueblo

3293.

I dreamt---
opened a door
stepped inside
brilliant light...
I woke up!

3294.

Here is my notebook
Not a journal
Recording my thoughts
Birthplace of poems
Home of my puzzling remarks.

Emphasizing doing honest work,
encouraging a change in temperament,
suggesting alternative interpretations,
unload our sagging apple carts...
laughing at our farty smarts.

3295.

In 1961 I decided
to learn about philosophy,
to explore alternative spiritualities,
to live life ethically,
to contribute socially.

So, I never attended any church again,
Supported progressive democratic socialism,
Read and wrote daily to improve my mind,
Found a gentle path for body-mind,
And lived content with others to age 79.

How to Live a Good Life
Advice from Wise Persons

3296.

"If I walk in Autumn's even
While the dead leaves pass
If I look on Spring's soft heaven,---
Something is not there which was.
Winter's wondrous frost and snow,
Summer's clouds, where are they now?"

- Percy Bysshe Shelley, Stanza

3297.

"They're denying whites the beach. The tribe says
no more casting for perch in the surf. No fires.
No walks under the moon. My instinct says we have done
much harm. The sea says nothing. The sea
has a violent way of cleaning the sand.

Be easy, wind and tide. The river's cringing this close
to the end. Ospreys dive to doom the salmon
or to doom. The undertow removes the bones
of preying fathers and in death the sea bass
pale out placid gray from black."

- Richard Hugo, Changes in Policy at Taholah

Taholah, WA

Quinault Indian Nation

3298.

uncalm as a puppy
smelling its universe
testing her teeth
barking to say:
"feed me today."

3299.

Born: time passes here . . .
Living: time passes here . . .
Dead: time passes here . . .

Song in the Rock: Tsé ni Gisi'n
Thunder Bird Dance: Kun XulaL

American Poetry: The Nineteenth Century, Volume 2
Native American Poetry, pp. 661-770.

3300.

Fates on the Run

The Fates changed trucks in Crescent City
Carried their Precious to Yachat's gritty
Guarded the Sacred with scabbard knives.
They ran, those Fates, chased by destinies,
Fearing free will, trapped by realities.

3301.

Thirty Minutes

sunbath
no wind
cool air
naked limbs
reading Dogen

The Fireplace Records Koan Collection

3302.

Arrivals

Arrivals suddenly arrive:
tulips blooming in the cold sun,
muddy gutter grates slimed,
cats making familiar rounds,
people working overtime.

3303.

Time
might best be compared
to 'Folding In',
rather than spilling away---
integrating over loosing.

3304.

'That 'sensual phosphorescence
my youth delighted in'
now lies almost behind me
like a land of dreams
wherein an angel

of hot sleep
dances like a diva
in strange veils
thru which desire
looks and cries."

- Lawrence Ferlinghetti,
Coney Island of the Mind, #26

3305.

Christians like to worship
Rome or Jerusalem;
Junkies needing a fake history snort,
or bottles of blessed bad wine...
I prefer to stand in Grayland, unholy, not divine.

Religious Sites

Four Days in Grayland

Bundled Up, Volume 5
Quintain Poems 2,500 - 3,000

Bundled Up, Volume 6
Quintain Poems 3,000 - 3,500

Bundled Up, Volume 7
Quintain Poems 3,500 - 4,000

Quintains - Research

Quintains: 3,000+ Quintains (Free Online)

Quintain Poetry Rhyme Schemes

Quintain Sonnet Forms ( 554, 5252, 555, 553 )

The Tick-Tock Tractatus

Quintains: Bibliography, Links, Notes

Quintains: Cloud Hands Blog Posts

Poetry - Research

Poetry by Michael P. Garofalo

3306.

So
the cold hard truth
was warmed over and softened by
paid reporters and supporters of lies.
"So?"

I stopped watching ABC, CBS, and NBC in 2026.

3307.

coughed up phloem
snot, mucous, spittle, goobers,
white, yellow, gooey, green,
allergies and infections---
chest cold in Spring

Doggerel Verses

3308.

I don't find
Israel-Iran-American
warrior behaviors useful,
rational, practical, good, peaceful,
productive, progressive, or decent
in 2026, 2001, 1992 . . . or ever.

Killers in power, acting hatefully.

3309.

"April Fools" she said to me
after springing her fake joke on me
and cleverly tricking me
laughing so mischievously at me---
like realizing Santa is a fiction.

3310.

cold April early morn
uncracked sun hiding in the Eastern Mountains;
slow rolling waves of warmth
flowing West over forests of fir trees---
hardly awake, sipping coffee

3311.

It Seems More a Matter of Vanity

"Make people pay to read your poetry!"
some once published author said to me.

Be realistic, friends:
Almost never do you make any money
from selling your books of poetry, and,
usually, sell very few books anyway.

I can buy all the writing of Gertrude Stein
or D. H. Lawrence, or James Joyce
for 99 cents each for a huge 1,000 page ebook file.

Why should I pay $20.00 for your
poetry chapbook of 68 pages?

Yes, your book:
It might be great, might be new,
might be fascinating, might be true...
but for 20 bucks it's a crap shoot,
that, unfortunately, I'm likely to loose.

3312.

No Kings Protest March 28, 206

He stood by her side.
She stood by his side.
They stood by their sides.
They Marched --- over ten million this time.

Will we change American for the better this time?

No Kings Day 2026

3313.

eating an apple
so crisp and red
so sharp and sweet
from Washington's
orchards in Yakima

cascade rains
melting snow
dams and canals
controlled flow
sacred water

sunny city
Yakima WA
orchard crops
winter cold
Mr. Adams glow

Yakima, Washington

Apples

3314.

Song of the Tuákish Crane

a-ahahíya, a-ahahíya
a nú hé-e-i, a nú hé-e-i
a nú hé-e-i, a nú hé-e-i
a-ahahíya, a-ahahíya
Tuánxî, Tuánxî, Tuánxî.

American Poetry: The Nineteenth Century, Volume 2
Native American Poetry, pp. 661-770.

3315.

Editors say "Thanks,
     but No." Tenth rejection!
The cold shoulder, indeed,
is discouraging, but
     I just keep writing poetry.

3316.

Yes, facts multiply
But do they divide into facts?
Yes, the world has many facts
All stacked in rooms called Now and Past.
In the future, we will add more facts.

3317.

I decided today, 2/21/2026,
to not use my cellphone, radio, or TV
after 8 pm every day indefinitely.
Beware of virtual reality...
Free my mind for ease.

3318.

10pm, time for bed
turning off my thinking head
shut down my messing around
pulled my pajamas up and on,
stretched long, closed my eyes, yawned.

3319.

crawled under the house
looking for plumbing leaks
looking for insulation breaks;
brushing bugs off my head
flashlight guide to crawling ahead

3320.

"I tried each thing, only some were immortal and free.
Elsewhere we are as sitting in a place where sunlight
Filters down, a little at a time,
Waiting for someone to come. Harsh words are spoken,
As the sun yellows the green of the maple tree...."

- John Ashbery, As One Put Drunk into the Packet-Boat

3321.

I blessed myself with Holy Water
Made the Sign of the Cross to comply
With the rules for sin they devised.
Those nuns and priests who moralized,
And filled our young minds with lies.

3322.

Christianity and Islam and Israeli Jews
Praise warriors as heroes/martyrs
For slaughtering whole towns
By starvation, genocide, and plunder---
What little goo they do, not much, no wonder.

{USA-America Christian Nationalism
in 2026 is even worse!}

3323.

In my quasi-logical place of late
I did not hesitate
To stretch my feet out
And meditate on future
Facts in logical space. What?

3324.

We sang songs
on the road to Illwaco:
The Pacific tides were high.
The Columbia River rises.
The Pacific tides were low.
The Columbia River falls.

A dog barked on a boat in port.
A woman opened and old gift shop.
Two lovers drank a bottle of port.
A memaloose haunted Chinook Cemetery plots.

The Time Enough Bookstore
sold me Rumi's poetry.
The Columbia Heritage Museum featured
19th and 20th local fishing industries.
The Depot Restaurant in Seaview served
fried oysters from Willapa Bay.
On the trails around Cape Disappointment
we walked and walked today.

Illwaco, Washington

Cape Disappointment, Washington

Seaview, Washington

3325.

Change, like life, is always changing.
Or, is only change not stopping.
The future is the earth, but changes are disguised.
The future is not nothing, otherwise,
nothing would change or happen
Yes, change happens all the time,
and that is an unchanging fact.

Tick-Tock Tractatus

3326.

Other people's sex lives
Are seldom a concern of mine.
While rape, pedophilia, and snuff
Criminals tear up decent people's minds,
To terrible for the victims, never justified.

3327.

For everything there is a season:
For Biologies interacting reliably
Their great value: timeliness.
Human kinds are herded along reliably,
But their prone to doing untimely deeds.

3328.

Beauty appeared
before my eyes
suddenly
when my mind
payed attention differently

Beauty is best savored s l o w l y
not in the bustle of simultaneous
multiplicities overstimulating me,
drowning me in raging streams of banalities---
I want more time for less harried complexity.

Sensory Overload

Five Senses

Simplicity - Quotations

Virtue Ethics

3329.

Persistence challenges resistance
Progress overcomes resistance
Birth splits resistance
Enemies offer resistance
Tomorrow cannot be resisted

Determination plows through resistance
Arguments display resistance
Disease defeated requires persistent resistance
The past provides some resistance

3330.

The wind died, the wind chimes went silent,
Dust settled on the cracked concrete,
Leaves lie in little heaps by the fence,
No squirrels are wrestling in sagging fir branches---
She rejoiced as the day was not sky-gray.

3331.

"I see the ideal.
But no ideals
have ever
been fully successful
on this earth."

- Isadora Duncan

3332.

3333.

they know
it shows
his faults
his lows
his assaults

3334.

hey Zen man
don't sit too much
like a silent stone
or your mind will stiffen
and you legs grow cold

A Gardener's Sutra on Time, Part 2.1

3335.

What is this called 'apathy'?
Sometimes caused by disease,
Fatigue, old age, or lacking empathy.
Different from depression's siege.
Related more to spiritual malaise.

3336.

Sorry, Dogen, just sitting
makes for mindless stiff bones.
Enlightenment has not sacred seat,
no favorite zafu on which to sit---
So stand up, work, do good, uplift!

Just Sitting: Shikantanza

3337.

We often chat about
What's not present,
Or never will be present,
What's missing, absent, lost---
Like dancing with Grandma Ast.

3338.

For the moment, Now, for me,
the world is the case.
Yesterday, the world was
actually the case.
Tomorrow's events are not the case.

God knows the future some say.
I don't think that way.

Some statements about future events
Are neither necessary nor impossible
and have no truth value.

Aristotle's Sea Battle

Problem of Future Contingents

Contingency

3339.

Touches of Bolinas
in her hands,
Sands of memories
beneath her feet---
Oversights of mescaline.

Bolinas, California

San Francisco, California

3340.

We think we decide
and plan and devise;
yet, despite our intentions,
time has its own directions,
and everything just happens otherwise.

3341.

"Spring passes and one remembers one's innocence
Summer passes and one remembers one's exuberance
Autumn passes and one remembers one's reverence
Winter passes and one remembers one's perseverance."
- Yoko Ono, Season of Glass

Time - Quotations

Time and the Art of Living, by Robert Grudin, 1997.

3342.

Before he left
he said
"keep the house clean."
Or, I misheard, and he said
"keep your mind clean" instead.

3343.

The world I know
Is present for me:
in memories, feelings, body, brain;
in pictures, letter, notes, names;
in my blunders for which I'm ashamed.

3344.

"Memory is greater than space.
This being so, if there was a crowd of people
who had no memory, they would hear nothing,
have a mind to nothing, recognize nothing.
But if their memory was intact, then they
would hear, have a mind [to do something}
and recognize [people and things].
Revere memory."

- Chandogya Upanishad, VII xiii, 750 BCE

3345.

I was raised in different times
Not these over paced, too thin, too restless,
Overworked daily utter grinds.

Instead I favor a gentler pace, rain, sunshine,
And patient bees busy at the critical times.

Felt Time, by Marc Wittmann, 2017

3346.

"Perhaps it would be exact to say
there are three times:
a present of things past,
a present of things present,
a present of things to come."

- St. Augustine of Hippo, 400 CE

3347.

Wednesday, April 1st, 2026, Vancouver.
Why specify the place of time.?
Why focus on the date so defined?
Who cares what day, or what you write?
What was it like in 1956?

3348.

We are time.
We are in the middle of time.
We can exit time, at any time.
We sense-feel-think to pass time.
We pass our time in the middle of days.
Essentially, we are time.

3349.

Live Now in this moment
Cultivate presence within Today.
But, unwise to act exclusively
Within pleasures only of today---
Deferment of pleasure... time to delay.

3350.

"Now from my window-sill I watch the night,
The church clock's yellow face, the green pier light
Burn for a new imprudent year;
The silence buzzes in my ear;
the lights of near-by families are out.

Under the darkness nothing seems to stir;
The lilac bush like a conspirator
Shams dead upon the lawn, and there
Above the flagstaff the Great Bear
Hangs as a portent over Helensburgh.

O Lords of Limit, training dark and light
And setting a tabu 'twixt left and right,
the influential quiet twins
From whom all property begins,
Look leniently upon us all to-night."

- W. H. Auden, The Watchers

3351.

The house hose
does not flow until
the faucet is turned on.
Get up and walk now;
turn yourself on.

3352.

Getting fed up
being beset
with annoying accidents;
Yes, another petty nuisance lately---
that's life every month at 80.

3353.

The Chariot in Tarot lore,
On Plato's model of Self-Control;
The Charioteer, Reason, holding the reigns
Controlling, balancing, now and future
Steeds pulling correctly to their destiny.

Charioteer Tarot Card

3354.

Our sense of the Present
Is not continuous.
It starts and stops in
small discrete steps;
Every 20 to 60 milliseconds.

Felt Time, by Marc Wittmann, 2017

3355.

The Id is only Present Tense Alive,
focused on immediate needs
and drives flowing bodily, incessantly,
facing only nowness craving sensuality---
The Super-Ego, Conscience, has future schemes.

Freudian Psychology

Conscience

3356.

Wait awhile, give it time to cook well.
Wait awhile, the day will warm up.
Wait awhile, better to leave later.
Wait awhile, he will be here soon...
Wait for the right time---wait it out.

The Marshmallow Test

Patience

Waiting

3357.

"And that other thing,
can't have "no other god before me"--- like,
profound anxiety of power and jealousy and envy,
what sort of god is that? worrying all the time?
Plenty of little gods are waiting to begin
their practice and learn just who they are."

- Gary Snyder, Stories in the Night

3358.

"Rock me Momma
like a Wagon Wheel"

Rolling down our empty long roads
like an electric cool aide acid bus
headed for Ohio's Capitol, Columbus.

The Electric Cool Aide Acid Test,
by Tom Wolff, 1989

Wagon Wheel Song, Darius Rucker

3359.

"You and I have memories
longer than the road
that stretches out ahead...
On our way home...
We're going home..."

Two Of Us, The Beatles, 1969

3360.

The sea is silent and still...
a moonless marriage of rocks and rivers,
twisted shore pines wordlessly twittering,
the windless walking of mindless twigs,
carried by Worker Ants day in and out.

3361.

"Foremost of false philosophies,
The sea harangues the daft,
The possessed logicians of romance.
Their swaying gaze,
that swaying mass

Embrace in everlasting loss---
Sea is the spurned dust
Sifted with fine renunciation
Into a metaphor,
A slow dilution.

- Laura Riding, Sea, False Philosophy

3362.

my shoulders are chilly
under my black sweater
this November night..
the ceiling light shines bright
centered on clear text over white

3363.

In the old Catholic church
in the middle of our moss-bound town;
Voices echo along marble walls
Footsteps click on terrazzo floors...
I blessed myself as I tip-toed out.

3364.

When I don't aim
misses don't count!

My words have slender faults
my sentences simper, don't bark...
No target, not purpose, feeble shouts.

- Roykan

3365.

"We can hold back neither
the coming of the flowers nor
the downward rush of the stream;
sooner or later,
everything comes to its fruition."
- Loy Ching-Yuen

Time - Quotations

3366.

Wool cap flaps over my ears,
Hiking boots on rocky ground,
Patagonia parka over my fleece vest.
My old tired walker's body
just a moving memento of time.

3367.

Showing its past,
Showing its present;
Showing its back
Showing its front---
A falling oak leaf.

- Ryokan

3368.

"The pennycandystore beyond the El
is where I first
fell in love
with unreality...
Jellybeans glowed in the semi-gloom
of that September afternoon

A cat upon the counter moved among
the licorice sticks
and tootsie rolls
and Oh Boy Gum."

- Lawrence Ferlinghetti,
Coney Island of the Mind, #20

3369.

The Turner Diaries with
          hard core Nazi ideology for
alienated white guys loving guns...
Timothy McVeight and Terry Nichols
     on the OKC truck bomber run.

[Oklahoma City, Murrah Building,
Bombing, April 19, 1995.]

3370.

     NFL Football in August
Preseason TV games on weekly
From all around the USA
          colorful competition
     between 2nd and 3rd String players.

3371.

Emotions cluster around Immediacy.
Distant futures lack emotional density.
We feel very little about 2222 CE.
Few have passions for far distant unrealities.
We lust after, say, hot SEX today! Fuck the Future!

Doggerel Verses

3372.

Always keeping your mind
Fixed on the Future; or,
Always keeping your mind
Fixed on the Present...
Either way tarnishes the quality of life.

The Middle Way of Buddhism

The Quality of Life

3373.

one fine day
at Siletz Bay
talked with a shady lady
about costly drugs and sex play---
academic inquiries

Siletz Bay, Oregon

Sex Workers

3374.

"ma ma" in two seconds of time
"Hey Jude" in three seconds of time.
"Run fast away from the serious danger now"
Needs more processing time;
More time for breaking meaning down.

Spoken workds have a special flow in time.

Felt Time, by Marc Wittmann, 2017, p. 44

"The "now", the moment, has temporal
duration--- of around three second segments."

The Order of Time, by Carlo Rovelli, 2018

3375.

Fog

"The fog comes
on little cat feet.

It sits looking
over harbor and city
on silent haunches
and then moves on."

- Carl Sandburg

3376.

tall toppled trees
tell to thee
the ten thousand
Timber tragedies---
troubling Timber technologies

3377.

Some silly superstitions
still stimulate support,
still screw stupid suckers.
Still sad Savior's smirk
saying sweetened somethings.

3378.

The big gong rang time after time
Boonnnnnngugugu Binnng Bbbbinnn......
From a gust of air moving the ringer:
Boonnnnnngugugu Binnng Bbbbinnn......
two dogs barked at the roaring wind.

[I placed the gong on the ground. Silence.]

3379.

"Jesus, did the Three Kings or your Father
bring gifts to you in the manger?"
Jesus, tried to recall, then said,
"Yo nací un dia
que Dios estuvo enfermo,
grave."

- César Vallejo

"What misfortune can equal death? Change can convert
every other into a blessing, or heal its sting---death alone
has no cure. It shakes the foundations of the earth on
which we tread; it destroys its beauty; it casts down our
shelter; it exposes us bare to desolation. When those we
love have passed into eternity, 'life is the desert and the
solitude' in which we are forced to linger--but never
find comfort more."

- Mary Shelley, Note on Poems of 1821

3380.

Something, specifically or anything:
Is what it is
Is as it is
Was once, is now, will be...
pine cones under fir trees.

Douglas Firs in the Northwest

A Pseudotsuga menziesii, Pinaceae,
by any other name, e.g., Douglas Fir.

David Douglas (1799-1834), Botanist

3381.

Works of art have a thingly nature in time:
The are exchanged for decades between galleries and museums.
They hang on walls for years along with trophies and clocks.
They are sounds from current CDs and MP3s of musical history.
When do we know they are "art"?

"There is something stony in a work of architecture,
wooden in a carving, colored in a painting, spoken
in a linguistic work, sonorous in a musical composition."

Tell me: When and who painted or composed It?

- Martin Heidegger, The Origin of the Work of Art

3382.

Indeed, clouds create magical lies,
swirling about in the space of the sky,
contorted images emerge then fly,
moving white shapes form then die,
changing art forms in the sky.

Willamette Valley, Oregon

Clouds

3383.

sun on my bald head
glare in my eyes
tulips red and blooming
cherry trees in pink head dress---
I doubt I have much time.

3384.

On This Day

On this day the world began.
A buzzard circled overhead.
A plane settled for a soft land.
A cook fried potatoes in a pan.
Happy dogs went out to play.

A crippled man put on his socks
On this day the world began
A drunk man could not stand.
A salesclerk totaled up our tab.
A child in class raised his hand.

A calendar outlined our plans.
Brushed her teeth, combed her hair.
He came in 5th, an also-ran.
On this day the world began.

3385.

The Artful Use of Time

When people often read, they change.
When people pay close attention, they change.
When people practice mindfulness, they change.
When people step back and carefully observe, they change.
When we are changed, the artful life emerges.

Keep a little distance
from everyday eyes, less practicality,
a psychic distance, aloofness,
and objects will emerge as art
producing new insights and surprises.

Our changing experiences
Overlaid with organic meaning fine
Art in your everyday experiences
Enriching our unfolding lives---
Music invites us to Dance.

Art and Its Significance
An Anthology of Aesthetic Theory, 1994

Art and Experience, John Dewey, 1932

3386.

four fellows finding
five former friends
for further future
fun festivities---
fell for funky frivolities

3387.

"I am content to live the patient day:
The wind sea-laden loiters to the land
And on the glittering gold of naked sun
The eternity of blue sea pales to spray.
In such a world we have no need to pray;

The holy voices of the sea and air
Are sacramental, like a mighty prayer
In which the earth has dreamed its tears away.
We row across the water's fluent gold
And age seems blessed, for the world is old."

- George Cabot Lodge, Tuckanuck, I

3388.

"Sir, say no more
Within me it is as if
The green and climbing
eyesight of a cat
Crawled near my mind's poor birds."

- Trumbull Stickney, Dramatic Fragments

3389.

"Although from the beginning
I knew
the world is impermanent
not a moment passes
when my sleeves are dry."

- Ryokan, Sky Above Great Wind

3390.

The campsite was pitch-dark
at the end of the night;
I uncovered the warm blankets,
turned on my flashlight,
took my morning piss, how nice.

3391.

"So over these past years---
A little puttering around,
Some relaxing, a lot of plans and ideas.
Hope to have more time to tell you about
The latter in the foreseeable future."

- John Ashbery, Tenth Symphony

3392.

A cranky crow
cawing his displeasure, steadily,
his mates do sympathize,
they shout agreement with him---
an afternoon cacophony of birds complaining.

3393.

There was no Them before Them
There will be no Them after Them
Ah, Them, Them!
We still savor
their succinct salient words.

Them = Japanese Haiku Masters

Ryokan

Cuttings: Haiku and Tanka by Months

3394.

At the Corner Cafe
in Grayland's town place on the:
Pacific-Grays Harbor County borderline.
Traffic on Route 105 outside the cafe door--
raindrops drip from the eaves.

Four Days in Grayland

3395.

a hoe is a hoe
a seed is a seed
a hole is a hole
a man with a hoe
digs a hole for a seed

- Ryokan

"Who should suspect?"

3396.

"A man said to the universe
"Sir, I exist!"
However," replied the universe,
"The fact has not created in me
Any sense of obligation."

- Stephen Crane, War is Kind

3397.

Seeing with Joanne's Eyes

April 1st, 2026, 2:09 am, Vancouver
Reading Joanne Kyger's, As Ever, 2002

Confusing words can communicate,
inform, resonate, deeply relate.

Meandering Around Some Ratty Harbor

disconnected tidbits
random images
idling impressions
wakes of smashed cookies
asides about Achilles, Ganesha, or Mother God.

surrealistic ramblings clever undefined,
attics of royal rubbish filling up,
typographically scattered words awry,
zigzagged misdirections --- fuzzy eyes,
meandering locutions about disheveled scenes.

riding snakes on sunny nights
steam pipes hissing nonsense tonight
murdering meaning line by line 212
name dropping mimicked poets 160, 212
gets no credit for rare poetic insights 250

"WALKING ALONE IN THE DARK
I RESOLVE TO PROCEED SLOWLY"

Are we looking forward
to her washing her hair? 78
Want to learn about her
social calendar for the day? 82
Hurrying up to do the laundry? 85

While a little brownie's servant of sand
dances to the bottom of the bland. 89
Did her head really bang on the subject? 92
Really? Some things open, some things closed. 94
Yes, I agree, she is everybody. 101

What did you eat for breakfast, after smoking a joint? 122
Held to be exhausted and deranged. 142
Time is a nice thing to go there. 207
A hideous mish mash of inheritance. 167

Maybe I'm just a stupid macho male
unappreciative of feminine insights,
not sensitive to most womens' daily grind;
maybe so, maybe that's right---
Or, maybe I just don't like most of her poetry tonight.

Yes,
I did like, by Joanne Kyger:
Up My Coast: Legends of the Bolinas Native People, pp. 177-180
Destruction: Bear, p.182

3398.

bouncing a basketball
play at the gym inside,
shooting baskets, rebounding,
dribbling, smiling, puffing...
trying to keep sports fun alive

3399.

Next week
I will swim by
And I know why;
For Zeus made me
into a King Salmon alive.

Chinook King Salmon

3400.

changing opportunities

in every moment
today is created anew—
          pristine possibilities
     changing opportunities
          depending on you

How to Live a Good Life

3401.

"I have written down all these thoughts as remarks,
short paragraphs,
sometimes in longer chains about the same subject,
sometimes jumping, in a sudden change,
from one area to another."

- Ludwig Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations, #v

3402.

I tossed the bait
into the surf
fishing for a silver perch—
        my fingers stiff and cold,
    reeling-reeling in a naked hook.

Four Days in Grayland

3403.

fast wind
shaking everything—
reading indoors
    don't hear or feel
         cold air streams

3404.

The Tower in Astoria
    high on the hill
a monument to one history—
selective rendition art homage
    to past port side pioneers.

3405.

opening
the book
adjusting
the lamp—
wiping my glasses

Quintain Poetry Sections on this Webpage
Bundled Up, Volume 6

Poems 3,000 - 3100

Poems 3,100 - 3,200

Poems 3,200 - 3,300

Poems 3,300 - 3,400

Poems 3,400 - 3,500

Bundled Up:

Quintains, Tankas, Pentastichs, and Onions

Original Quintain Poetry By Mike Garofalo

Bundled Up, Volume 1
Quintain Poems 1 - 1,000

Bundled Up, Volume 2
Quintain Poems 1,000 - 1,500

Bundled Up, Volume 3
Quintain Poems 1,500 - 2,000

Bundled Up, Volume 4
Quintain Poems 2,000 - 2,500

Bundled Up, Volume 5
Quintain Poems 2,500 - 3,000

Bundled Up, Volume 6
Quintain Poems 3,000 - 3,500

Quintains - Research

Quintains: 3,000+ Quintains (Free Online)

Quintain Poetry Rhyme Schemes

Quintain Sonnet Forms ( 554, 5252, 555, 553 )

Quintains: Bibliography, Links, Notes

Quintains: Cloud Hands Blog Posts

Poetry - Research

Poetry by Michael P. Garofalo

3406.

Woman: making dinner stew
Man: working hard
Children: playing games in yard
Family: growing older further
Life: Uncertain At Large

3407.

Th Uhr cycle is the Clock of Day!
Day and Night rule our ways.
Circadian rhythms our bodies play.
Over and over, our compass is the Day,
Our existence lives time by Days.

The year is our other compass
for existential delay.

Circadian Rhythms

Uhr, Stunde, Uhrzeit

Night and Day

3408.

I lift barbells
I'm a bit of a dumbbell.
Workout at the YMCA,
want stronger legs
at 80 years of age.

YMCA Clark County

Strength Training for Seniors

Balance Exercises for Seniors

3409.

"Heading north toward Tejon Pass
humming ant-column vehicles
six, eight lanes wide
curving through a gap in the vertical
cow flanked mountains, tops out of sight,
sprinkled with spring flowers

bigrig parked by the water tower
sun, cars, hills, coffee---all
to go"

- Gary Snyder, To Go

3410.

short of breath
in gym class
lifting weights
yoga stretch---
stiff back

3411.

I stayed up all night
seriously enraged by DTrump's
crazy demented shoot-from-the-hip
lies, arrogance, demagoguery and
ruining our economy and democracy.

This anger and disappointment
Is not good for my body or mind
Keeping me alert like a finch
Fearful of an angry hawk in flight.
Grinding my spirit down, hurting my Kind.

{He is the first USA president that I truly Hate.}

3412.

"For countless mortals music, however vaguely,
comes closer than any other felt presence to inferring,
to forecasting the possible reality of transcendence.
of an encounter with the numinous, with the
supernatural as these lie beyond empirical reach."

- George Steiner, The Poetry of Thought

3413.

Walking on the Columbia's
shoreline sleeve of muddy sand,
a few fishermen casting lures,
a few seniors in flimsy chairs,
a few sea gull's stare at us there.

Fort Steven's State Park, Oregon

Yurt Camping Information

Columbia River, WA and OR

3414.

His lies increased like garbage at the landfill.
His mind was useless like spit on the sidewalk.
He was unpredictable like a drunk driver passing.
He was scary like a tornado in the dark.
He was sick like a pedophile on crack cocaine.

I loathe Donald Frump Trump.

3415.

Terror is created
by fearful anticipation,
apprehension of disaster coming.
Horror is realized and descried
after the evil is committed.

3416.

second by second
hour after hour
week by week
mouth after month---
longevity adds up

3417.

Spring morning
a man stands
listening to a radio
waiting for the bus--
Downtown Camas soaked in mist.

Camas, Washington

3418.

Is there a passage of time?
Or, a tense-less time.
Woke up A, ate cereal B, mowed the lawn C,
wrote a poem D, ate dinner E, etc: ABCDEFGH...Z.
A Sequence, an Order, passing undefined.

3419.

slept so still
wasn't wiggling
sound slumber
hidden hours
empty eyes

3420.

In-breath five seconds, pause;
Out-breath five seconds, pause...
This cycle known intimately within
Proof positive that the world
Will exhausted die. Polluted Air Suicide.

Air Pollution 2026

"Out breath
and in breath---
know that they are
proof that the world
is inexhaustible.

- Ryokan, 1820, Sky Above Great Wind

3421.

By our hot polluted air suicide;
The toxic air genocide of mankind.
The foul smell of air in the wilderness.
The death of animals that can no longer breathe.
Nothing is inexhaustible. Even our sun will die.

Environmental Disasters

Atmosphere of the Earth

3422.

Swimming up the Cowlitz
the salmon didn't dither
while focused, unknowingly, on the future---
my grand daughter and I
selected shiny lures

We sat by the stream
our silence set for peace
our souls surrounded by trees
our minds nowhere seen---
the fog closed in quietly.

Cowlitz River, Washington

Longview, Washington

3423.

My wife, Karen,
digging in the West garden,
pulling weeds, watering...
has drawn a crowd of crows
waiting for her to go.

3424.

how do i know
how do i know it's so
how do i know how to make it go

how do i learn how to know
how do i unlearn what not to know

Epistemology

Knowing

3425.

Just Once

"But because truly being here is so much;
because everything here apparently needs us,
this fleeting world, which in some strange way
keeps calling to us. Us, the most fleeting of all.
Once for each thing. Just once; no more.
And we too, just once. And never again. 
But to have been this once, completely,
even if only once: to have been at one
with the earth, seems beyond undoing."

-  Rainer Maria Rilke, Duino Elegies, 9th, 1923
Translated by Stephen Mitchell

3426.

Things tell time
Time is revealed in things
Things embody time.
Without things is timelessness
Things matter all the time

The lavender Wisteria blossoms say it's April.
Sunlit porch tell you it's noon.
Old man, 75, sits in a chair.
A book can only be read now.
Book = Moshe Feldenkrais, The Potent Self, 1985

Time discloses Things
Things are all we have

Metaphysics

The Bottom Line

Feldenkris Method

Biography of Mike Garofalo

3427.

"Half in a dream
I become aware
That the voices of the crickets
Growing faint
With the growing Autumn.

I mourn
For this lonely
Year that is passing
And my own being
Grows fainter and fades away."

- Kenneth Rexroth, Love Poems of Marichiko LVIII

3428.

I used to live where horses were bred
on pastures behind my back yard,
And cows were pastured to the right side.
I watched a mare birth a foal...
East of the Yolly-Bolly Mountain Queens.

Yolly-Bolly Mountains, California

Red Bluff, California

3429.

tidbits of truth

Master Goose: Live as if your already dead!
Reverend Hound Dog: Humm...
Hound Dog: How do I live longer?
Goose: Keep breathing as long as you can.
Coyote: Humm....

Waiting for the Master
A play by Mike Garofalo
Fireplace Record: Koans #37

3430.

I know it is raining or not raining.
It is raining or not raining right now.
Will it rain or not rain next Tuesday?
It did not rain last Thursday.
So what! I'm all wet.

3431.

That such and such is the case
May piss me off for all the day
Why should it be this damn way?

Next month, such and such will not be the case.
I will be very pleased come that day.

Quintain Poetry

Reading Wittgenstein 1975-

3432.

Yes, I am a Formalist Poet lately
in just one respect:
I write quintains for Bundled Up.
Otherwise, my poetry
is rather eclectic in style.

Highway 101 and 1: A Docu-Poem

3433.

spacetime replaces
space and time
for Einstein;
but for me---
I'm stuck in one place in time

3434.

"Cloud finger dragons dance and
tremble down the ridge
and spit and spiral snow then pull in
quivering, on the sawtooth
spine."

- Gary Snyder, Source

3435.

I'm salty, shit!
I'm cranky, crap!
I'm dorky, damn.
I'm slow, slammajammacool.
I'm poetry, phew.

A Gardener's Sutra on Time, Part 2.1

3436.

A Fan of Obscurity

Reading John Ashbery
such poetic incomprehensible dexterity.
Ambiguity unraveling like balls of string,
brilliant irrelevancy, meaning free,
shiny words emotionless inside me...

Then I read Seamus Heaney
such clever word-smithing captivated me
a fan of obscurity, jaggedness, logic free,
words floating, flowers in snow, strange degrees,
of nonsense as thick as flies in Alaska breeze...

Wondering why I favor strange complex poetry
gets my mind of politics, polishes my dreams,
makes me puzzled, lifts and cuffs my ears,
challenges my concepts of meaning,
making me a fan of irrationality.

Poetry Research

3437.

clowning around
springtime sounds
budding dogwoods
cheerful white songs
hidden meanings

3438.

Some lingering
around discussions about some philosophical matters
now appeared pointless these days:
false, outdated, outlandish, nonsensical,
fictions, laughable, power trips ... often useless
to me and many.
Poetry loves to rock climb on the Edges of Nonsense.

3438.

simmering incredulous opening wounds
cutting untruths swept up by balloons
exploded visions of knotty wood
carved up untimely vicissitudes
removed a rock from scuffed shoes

3439.

I don't have time to read
Two hundred comments to a Substack feed.
Or, browse an endless stream
Of notes and posts of little interest to me.
So then I just post one quintain each Monday
and ignore and skip all the rest.

Substack Platform

3440.

Yes, yes!
I decided today
to find a new and better way
to get up and move my body, dance, and play;
Every day!

3441.

What is the meaning (Sinn)
Of being (Sein)? I inquired.
The earth was our holy home ground,
For our limited time; history engulfed us,
we acted entangled in our daily life.

Being and Time, by Martin Heidegger

Time (Zeit)

3442.

The difference between experience and
An experience is keen---
Experience is the past enshrined
An Experience is fixed in place and time
And rises to Art Sublime.

And what make real art sublime?

3443.

We played the card game of Spades,
a foursome competition,
fingers tight around our card hands,
carefully playing out our hands---
concentrated minds passing time.

Cantos of the Hands

3444.

Five senses are impelling
for noticing, for revealing, for showing---
and in addition we have more senses:
our sense of time
our language using sense, our values aligned.

3445.

two dogs now
wrestling
growling low
playfully
carefully

3446.

hick-ups
some burps
gagging
spitting
bad gut

3447.

"The force of silence is that of a dying echo of language.
It is possible to love silently,
but perhaps only up to a point.
Authentic speechlessness comes with death.
To die is to stop chattering."

- George Steiner, The Poetry of Thought

3448.

I walked at 9 am eagerly
Carried my cane---a third leg,
Charmed by blooming tulip trees,
Cool April day - no raining;
I limped a little, but that's OK.

April - Quotations

Walking

3449.

The Tick-Tock Tractatus
Speaking of Time: The Poetic Investigations
By Michael P. Garofalo

3450.

The real test of your freedom
Is not doing whatever
You want to do now; but,
Doing what you don't want to do later.
True freedom demands saying "No!"

Freedom

Free Will

3451.

Spontaneity is craved by many
not constrained by propriety,
hypocritical phony morality, false modesty...
Sensation seeking, endless stimulating TV,
Willy-Nilly buck ass free, existential triviality.

Spontaneous

Revolutionary Spontaneity

Spontaneous Personality

3452.

We can estimate future events from present ones.
We assume a causal nexus,
Not a "superstition" without a reason.
We define future events by many present ones:
predictions, probabilities, guesses, estimates,
anticipations, expectations, schedules...
OK, maybe not infer, but damn close anyway.

3453.

"A book shop is a powder-magazine,
a dynamite-shed,
a drugstore of poisons,
a bar of intoxicants, a den of opiates,
an island of sirens."

- John Cowper Powys

3454.

A Book vs A Webpage

Why do I choose to publish my research
and poetry online, commercial free, as
an indie publisher since 1998?

More possibilities and options.
Independence, Freedom, My Choices.
No waiting for a publisher.
Ongoing development.
Worldwide distribution.
Old School Web Knowledge Philosophy.
No need to spend time and money promoting.
No waiting for approval from anyone.
Sharing, educating, expanding knowledge.
Being good at something in my old age.
Having something to keep me engaged.
I need $1,500 per year for websites;
a gift of mine to the world.
Instant publication.
I've been online since 1998.

3455.

The Ugly Far Past

I experienced sexual abuse
and sexual discrimination
from nuns, priests, and parents
before I was sixteen.
I never forgot those ugly scenes.

Yes, they tried their best, but badly failed.
Even my mom said he was a terrible father.
But, pick myself up buddy, move on,
Do it my way, differently, decently,
As a father, teacher, and human being.

3456.

Grabbing the hand axe
for cutting fireplace wood;
Holding the cellphone
for reading some news---
ready-to-hand is essential to use

Cantos of the Hands

Being and Time, by Martin Heidegger

3457.

hands criss-crossing
the body's mid-line
stimulates the brain
in ways carefully defined
by experiments over time.

Tai Chi Chuan

Qigong

Yoga

3458.

"I wanted to hear
Sappho's laughter
and the speech of
her stringed shell

What I heard was
whiskered
mumblement
of grammarians:
Greek pterodactyls
and Victorian dodos."

- Mary Barnard, Static

3459.

Some say
I am obsessed
with publishing three quintains
every day for four long years
And today

Not obsession
just a pleasing habit
just a creative mode of expression
just a focused form of meditation...

Some say
I am dedicated
to opening up brevity
to exploring the edges of poetry
Consistently

3460.

reaching for a cup
holding it with care
in my shaky fingers
and arthritic thumb---
coping every day

Parkinson's Disease

Osteoarthritis

3461.

"Almost naked and not naked
Through a cloud
Of lace revealing
Your skin which I run
My mad mouth over.

I want you lost in laughter
I want you to take charge
Wicked to the end
Worse if you wish
Serpentine with lust.

- Paul Verlaine, Seguidilla

3462.
What is Good Company?

I enjoy reading experts
on various subjects,
just to listen and learn.
Am I an introvert, or
a seeker of knowledge and expertise?

I don't need the company
of the uneducated, ordinary, or TV.
Because everyone has limited time.
They live their lives, and
I live mine. Separately.

Being an introvert
is fine by me.
I'm not a misanthrope or lonely.
I enrich my days
reading science, philosophy, and poetry.

Introversion and Extroversion

Reading

3463.

A TTT Game

A game: choose at random,
five of my TTT quintains or one-liners,
read them slow or fast as your pace desires,
do they resonate together, do they amplify,
do they shed a spotlight on a touch of time.

The little selected batch of Remarks,
like a Tarot spread insightful,
maybe or maybe not they show---
a clarity, a transparency, a linguistic density,
and echoes of resonances enriching the whole.

LP #23, LP #27

Tick-Tock Tractatus

3464.

American religious zealots
Are not friends of mine.
I don't wish them to dematerialize
In their raptures or magick rites;
However, I never want them near my mind.

3465.

Cold Mountain
speaks to me
via poetry
so chilly
clear and free

- Han Shan

3466.

I travelled to Iran
via a documentary film
narrated intelligently---
I did not vote for destructive Trumppp
who killed 206 of your children in 2026

3467.

Time is like a reliable instrument
And its sense is its employment
And at its sense as its employment
Makes sense as we employ it.
Non-employment makes no sound.

3468.

Not feeling good any more
Apathetic, depressed, out of sorts
Angry, pissed off, soured
Upset, shocked, disappointed---
Therapy: No Kings March 28, 2026

3469.

Constraints of Oulipo

3470.

"Metaphors that emphasize depth of under-
standing, depth of emotional response,
exactness of analogy, precision of tone,
comprehensiveness, elegance, dignity. LP 26

Resonance here is a root metaphor. LP33

Integrity is a form of attunement. LP34

Only in the nexus of lyric utterance
does a word have resonance. LP35

That its Eros is clarity. LP 37"

LP = Lyric Philosophy, by Jan Zwicky

3471.

Mike Garofalo Writes Lousy Poetry

my cranky realism
bouncing doggerel
pithy reversals
sweets and sours
my prosaic commonplaces

my brevities lacking depth
a disorganized random mess
quantity lacking quality
dull digital scrapbooks
my limited Northwest familiarities

my Romantic infatuations undisguised
jarring rhythmic irregularities
a lack of the idealizing language of high poetry
my homespun ho-hum vocabulary...
self-criticism opens one's eyes.

3472.

Could you write 500 quintains
without using the word 'love'?

Yes! See Bundled Up: Quintains: Volume 3

Liponymy: Forbids the use of a specific
given word. OPPL, p. 107

3473.

"I wanna ooze yer toothsome goth sex forever
'Cause my onscreen oral scene with Zora just went nowhere.
And human sex trafficking just takes the piss out of daywear.
And a haute-crunchy supermarket chain will just keep identifyin'
with the professor."

- Sharon Mesmer,
I Don't Wanna Lose Yer Wholesome Love Fest Forever

3474.

Acrophobia is in me
suspended over seeming eternity
at the edges of dizzying space
stepped back fast from that scary place---
Uneasy standing at the edge of a steep rock face.

Acrophobia

3475.

"Sometimes
I go about pitying myself
While I am carried by
The wind
Across the sky."

Chippewa Song, Earth Prayers

3476.

Prolific poets on the Internet:
Tom Zart, John Bradburne, Brian Bilston...
They keep on writing poems everyday...
Hopefully, many are actually read.

Which five will be read after they are dead?

3477.

Lurching more
Bumping into walls
Stumbling when I turn quickly
Wobbling down my walking path
Uncoordinated at times... Age 80 time.

3478.

Why has nobody ever asked me
to offer up some good words before the group ate?
I'm the oldest, and adequately articulate;
but the shy woman church goer
is asked to give a blessing every time.

They seem to need a Heavenly Father
To rule their habits of mind.
If I said wise and wonder words to inspire,
no matter, unless the 'God' token is said
they would be dissatisfied.

3479.

Stuck behind walls of timid shyness
But becoming and bright and beautiful inside;
She shelved groceries at the Safeway store.
She knew she wanted liberation
But her reticence hindered transformation.

3480.

Long ago
what did I look like
before I was born?
Questions like these:
Keep us on out toes.

3481.

My dad was a fact of my life,
For 53 years a fact of reality.
He died, time moved on,
His fixed factuality grew dim
Once his case back when, not his case Now;
And not everything remained the same.

3482.

The Realities of Reality

Happenings together
Where my Now and Where are tethered,
Making me where and how I am---
By living in our world Now
In my times in this strange land.

Being and Time, by Martin Heidegger

3483.

I kind of understand
what I myself do say; but,
it is something else indeed
for me to understand myself
only through the words I wrote.

3484.

old man
bruises on his skinny hands,
blood thinned and medicines in,
purple/red splotches on his arm skin
white man

Bruising: Actinic purpura

3485.

lost
my favorite fine harmonica
somewhere along the Bandon
sand dunes north of the Coquille
cross

Coquille River

Bandon, Oregon

Anger/Cross

3486.

Sitting by the silent stream
Dwindling down in the September sunbeams
Water slowly sinking down---
I wondered about my daydreams
Disappearing slowly downstream.

3487.

Imagination, Inspiration, Intuition:
Steiner's Three Keys to Insights
Into an esoteric spiritual reality
That will flip over our everyday banality
Into an Overdrive Consciousness of New Realities.

- Rudolf Steiner, Anthroposophical Society

Poetry can be a nuisance to philosophers.

3488.

They argued for efficiency
cost-effectiveness by any means;
but this was questioned by me.
Creative inefficiency appealed to me:
Dancing, gardening, Tai Chi, caring, poetry...

Please define efficiency without the mention of money.
Decent ethical effectiveness is favored by me.
Get the right things done first!

Cost-Effectiveness

Effectiveness

3489.

A friend told me
there are experts on your poetry,
who can analyze my work thoroughly---
Their names? Gemini AI,
Co-Pilot AI, and Chat GPT.

3490.

My mind is a windstorm of fluff
flying willy-nilly
inside my bending brain thoughts
scattered like seeds on idea grounds
but never rooting or settling down.

3491.

"How can the head-heavy power-hungry political scientist
Government    two-world    Capitalist-Imperialist
Third-world    Communist  paper-shuffling male
          non-farmer   jet-set     bureaucrats
Speak for the green of the leaf? Speak for the soil?"

- Gary Snyder, Mother Earth: Her Whales

3492.

Fatigue caught up with me,
my yawning increased steadily,
my eyes could not stay focused steadily,
my felt sleep creeping up on me.
Half-dreaming, I got in bed.

3493.

I was forced to pray
"Our Father, who art in Heaven..."
But, you can never be a Father
without a Mother.
Where was God the Mother? The Goddess?

3494.

We cannabis smokers
harassed and jailed for decades
because of unfair laws
imposed by old white men
who wanted their alcohol or tobacco to win.

3495.

She marched on No-Kings Day
No matter what her cold hearted husband said,
or his evangelistic preacher said.
She had courage, she had grit!
Then her mean MAGA husband hit her with is fists.

Later, she found him naked in her
twelve year old daughter's bed,
enjoying sodomy while she bled.
What will Mom do?
She was so shocked and very afraid.

She got the gun and reloaded it,
Packed a few clothes, took her daughter,
Drove to the police station gate!
Determined, strong, head high, both safe...
Earlier she had shot him in the face.

3496.

I was wondering
just what was needed...
Food, Water, Air, Work, Others.

Or, "gods, heaven, earth, mortals";
Heidegger was unconvincing.

Martin Heidegger

3497.

In the beginning was
not the Logos-Word.
In the beginning was
the body and brain.
Words hitched a ride and came.

3498.

Presentism time theory
General Block time theory
Moving Spotlight time theory
Ordinary Realistic time theory
What theory next? Next year?

We exist in our entirety at any time,
even as time passes.

Perdurantism
A four-dimensional moving worm
Not wholly present at any one moment in time
And extended in space-time.
Like sleeping by a river in the wintertime.

Presentism

Perdurantism

3499.

"Nothing" is pregnant with Possibilities.
The past is now-here Nothing;
And offering up everything
Something and nothing simultaneously
Point to the futures of Being.

Everything comes from Time's history!

Wu Ji --- Emptinesss

Taoism

3500.

Can you smell the cathedral
Can you see the past
Can you feel the invisible
Can you taste the future
Can you hear the call of Wonder

Oulipos

Five Senses

Seeing