The Poetry Notebooks

Of Mike Garofalo

Feedback, Kudos, Reviews, Comments, Links
Comments from Visitors to the Webpages

25 Steps and Beyond: The Collected Works

Recent Feedback, Reviews, Comments, Praise:

"I enjoyed reading your Highway 101 poem. You have talent!"
- Alicia Flinn, 5/26/2025

"I found your website last evening. I was researching the Tao Te Ching, Chapter 14, and found the translation by Derick Bryce to be very interesting. It seemed to follow the principles of Advaita. I also liked your Master Chang San-Feng very much. Thank you for inspiring me last evening."
- Clifford Hook, 5/17/2025

Dozens of positive e-mail messages and awards for my Spirit of Gardening website.

"I am so grateful for finding your pages with the Dao De Jing. I find them a rich resource."
- Mark Estdale, 3/22/2024

"I really enjoyed Mike Garofalo's collage poem, The Bottom Line, featuring statements on writing and creativity; a shorter version of which he shared at Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic on May 8, 2025."
- Christopher Luna, 5/27/2025

"I just wanted to say how much I have appreciated your work and research over time. You have enriched my life and understanding! Many thanks!"
- Teja Bell, Qigong Dharma, 7/10/2024

25 Steps and Beyond: The Collected Works

"Thank-you, I appreciate your poetic descriptions. I am using your research on the Valley Spirit as a jumping off point for my own meditation. It is wonderful to make a connection with a fellow explorer."
- Celia Dermont, 11/5/2023

Record of Publication:

Before 2003, my poems appeared in many on-line publications, I stopped keeping track in 2006. Many of these websites are no longer in existence. I have been online continuously since 1998.

Simply Haiku - May 2004
haijinx
Hyperlinked Arts Rens
Haiku Wall
Future for Word Exhibition, Concrete/Visual Poetry, Seattle Poetry Festival 2002
Haiku Fauna
The Vine - Haiku Garden
Non-Duality Salon Highlights
Eratio Post-Modern Poetry
Terebess Asia Online
Great Sand Dunes National Monument

My poems have also appeared in the following print publications:

Voices and Echoes: Haiku Society of America Members' Anthology 2001

Dozens of positive e-mail messages and awards for my Spirit of Gardening website.

25 Steps and Beyond: Collected Works

Bundled Up: Quintains and Tankas

At the Edges of the West
Highway 101 and Hwy 1: Pacific Coast

Cuttings: Haiku, Senryu, Brief Poems

The Spirit of Gardening

Concrete Poetry

The Gushen Grove Sonnets

At the Edges of the Fertile West
Highway 99 and Interstate 5

Cantos of the Hands

Poetry Research

Zen Poetry

Past Reviews

"A superb online directory compiled by Michael P. Garofalo featuring all the best concrete poetry sites on the WWW."
- Christina Conrad, Performance Poetry Websites, 10 March 2002

"The most extensive site I've yet found on concrete poetry is the one designed and run by Michael P. Garofalo who has gathered a wide-ranging collection of styles, sites, and examples, including some of his own striking works of graphic/verbal art. This site is well worth a visit."
- Brad Burg's Website, 18 April 2003

"I bow to the collection of gardening quotations that you offer us at Garden Digest. With Great Thanks."
- Joyce Wycoff, e-mail, 2/27/2018

"I wanted a short bit to evoke July in a neighborhood newsletter that I write in Indiana. I found the katydid chorus online somehow and because, like you, I always want to cite original sources, I eventually tracked it to your Garden Digest page. Thank you for the service you provide, inspiration, poetry and more. I grew up in Red Bluff (left in 1977 for college) and my mother and step-father taught in RB schools (Bidwell and Vista), so reading about your work and lives in that area was especially meaningful."
- Melissa Brown, e-mail, 7/6/2017

"I just came across your website and found it to be a great garden resource! I love the clean layout of the site!"
- Abby Werkowski, e-mail, 6/27/2017

Dozens of positive e-mail messages and awards for my Spirit of Gardening website.

"Wonderful site, great resource. When a dear friend was dying of ALS, I sent her a poem from your site every day for her last 1 and a half year of life. I send my wife one of your poems every morning. Thanks and best regards."
- Scott Reiff, e-mail, 12/29/2015

"Boasting over 3,500 gardening-related poems, quoatations, and articles, this site is an entertainment den
for both gardening amateurs and professionals. It is just a place to relax and enjoy, with no do-it-yourself
guides and no practical stuff. Their quotations and poems are carefully indexed, and they also have
a curious “history of gardening timeline”. Their trees and flowers sections comprise tree and flower
related quotes, and their humor section provides “Jokes, Puns, Riddles, One-Liners and Humor for Gardeners”.
Their weeding section doesn`t have weeding advice, as one would expect, but a long list of weeding
related quotes and verses. The spirituality section offers very politically correct “Quotes for Those that Love Gardens, Gardening and the Green Way.” All in all, if you are looking for gardening tips, you shouldn`t come here, but if you just love talking about gardening, and you just want to relax, this will be your perfect chill-out room."
- Killer Start Ups, 2013

"Good Morning Mike. Thank You for all the food for thought you have given us "spiritual" gardeners. As an addicted quote lover, I particularly enjoy your quotes and will follow your blog."
- Russell Jabaut, e-mail, 9/26/2017

"Your concrete poetry website is brilliant! A treasure of research."
- Luc Fierens, Mail Art, 20 January 2004

25 Steps and Beyond: The Collected Works

"If it too wet, miserable or otherwise to be out, this is a delightful and deep resource that will cheer you up and may even inspire you to greater levels."
- Living in Orkney, 2013

"You've done some beautiful work, both in your own concrete poetry, and on the website. Indeed, I think yours is the most effective concrete poetry I've seen, as works of art."
- Brad Burg, e-mail on 28 October 2002, Outside the Lines: Poetry at Play

"A very extensive list of concrete-visual poetry books, poems, forms, and websites."
- Is It a Book, 15 January 2003

"Dear Unknown Gardner, You have planted a multitude of gems (blossom) in your garden with thought provoking plots. And, watered them well with long and tender care; and folks like me walk in and gaze at
the bountiful plantation and are amazed by your collection. And, I have plucked a few of the bouncing, colorful, smiling, jumping and dancing delicate flowers, and adored (shared) at many a places. Forgive me for this intrusion, like a big bumble buzzing bee I cannot avoid coming again and again into the patch, and plucking a few trinkets to share with my acquaintances!"
- Jagjit, India, September 26, 2010.

"Bravo for your visual poetry!"
- Joelle Dautricourt, Big Bang Faerie, 13 August 2002

"Over the years you have certainly made a fabulous contribution via your excellent web sites."
- Patricia Hackett and James W. Hackett, Maui, Hawaii, 27 Jan 2005
The Haiku and Zen World of James W. Hackett

"Mike Garofalo's Poetry Notebook pages have some of the best and up-to-date haiku weblinkage available. These are well organized into alphabetical order, author order, haiku resources, teaching haiku (by age group!!!), classic haijin, and more. This is an all-time best site for haijin! A great place for gardeners, haijin and philosophers to wander for hours; an ongoing act of creativity."
- Debra Woolard Bender, Paper Lanterns, 23 December 2000

"Mike, this is Cindy from Garden Site Awards. You probably didn't know, but one of your website visitors
nominated your website for our "Best Garden Website Award" last week. We get over 150 nominations
each week but only a couple websites are given our award. After reviewing your site, we've decided
you deserve this month's Best Garden Website Award. Congratulations!! Keep up the great work on
your website! You have some excellent content already on it and I'm sure it will only get better."
- Cindy Meadows, December 6, 2006.

"This site provides detailed information for links to numerous haiku sites. With a click, you'll find journals, books, small presses, directories, guides. You name it, you'll find it here. An excellent, easy-to-navigate site that was born to be bookmarked!"
- Elizabeth St Jacques, Poetry in the Light: Links to Please, 15 May 2001

"One of the most comprehensive collections of links to haiku resources on the Internet, assembled by Michael P. Garofalo. He is also a gardener, and his site, while very thorough on haiku, can take you to other corners as well."
- William J. Higginson, Open Directory Haiku Editor, 30 May 2000

"If you truly enjoy gardening, do NOT visit this site unless you have plenty of free time. Michael Garofalo has amassed an incredible collection of garden history, quotations, poetry, art and garden wisdom. I found that I'd "lost" a couple of hours just following a few of Michael's links; and I've barely scratched the surface of this website. Material is loosely organized by over ninety themes, and includes offerings from numerous garden writers. This will be a most welcome visit any time, but especially on a cold winter evening."
- Dan Eskelson, Clearwater Landscapes, 7 Jan 2000.

1,935,600 Webpages
Served to Readers Around the World from March 2000 - December 2004
From the Poetry Notebooks of Michael P. Garofalo
(Excluding graphics served: .gif, .jpg)
Statistics 2003  Statistics 2004

"A wonderful site, not only his nice haiku, but also a very nice and rich bibliography about haiku on the Net, addresses for publishing, addresses of personal sites of well-known writers; but above all, an exceptional site rich in quotes, about all that is connected with gardening , built by a specialist in bibliography."
- Serge Tome, Temps Libres - Free Times, 17 June 2000

"The History of Gardening Timeline has been cited in The Infography as one of the most excellent sources of information about the subject of "Botanical Explorations in the United States and Canada." This is truly an honor for your web resource, because it has been selected and cited by a college professor who is a specialist
about this subject. Based upon this independent expert's recommendation, we at Fields of Knowledge are pleased to refer students and librarians to the information you have made available to the learning public."
- Howard Chesshire, Fields of Knowledge, 12 March 2002.

"This web site has one of the most complete collections of links to haiku poetry that I have seen on the web. Carefully listed by names, it gives you quick access to haiku links. But this is not all, the site includes references and guides, a section on teaching haiku poetry, and a collection of Zen quotations. Furthermore, Mr. Garofalo, the founder, is very versatile. He has also posted The Spirit of Gardening and Quotes for Gardeners. And, last but not least, his very fine and sharp poems. So, haiku, Zen, the art of gardening, learning haiku, indexes, links ... bring us a wonderful site. Excellent! A great contribution!"
- Carlos Fleitas, (E)literature, 15 March 2001

"It seems that most links pertaining to any haiku related subject of interest can be found at this website. I recommend it. It's well organized, very complete, and a time-saver."
- Ty's Recommended Links, 9 May 2001

25 Steps and Beyond: The Collected Works

"Hi Michael, I bow to your work! It is truly amazing. It amazes me all the more for a special reason: in the 90s, I published a novel titled "Rabenwelt (Raven World)" in German, and a key character there is a Hawaiian-Korean "Zen Gardener" called Mr. "I am just a simple gardener" Makani. When I started browsing your website, I really felt moved and thought: Hell!, Master Makani has his own website now. Really beautiful and great work! Keep going! Kind regards from Germany."
- Stefan Thiesen, 5/1/2006, Mind Quest.

"Your webpage is unique and your haiku delightful."
- Lucille Younger, Losing the Continents, 7 September 2000, Poems

25 Steps and Beyond: Collected Works

Bundled Up: Quintains and Tankas

At the Edges of the West
Highway 101 and Hwy 1: Pacific Coast

The Spirit of Gardening

Concrete Poetry

Zen Poetry

Cuttings: Haiku, Senryu, Brief Poems

The Gushen Grove Sonnets

At the Edges of the Fertile West
Highway 99 and Interstate 5

Cantos of the Hands

Poetry Research

"Teaching Haiku Poetry, by Michael P. Garofalo, offers several links to lesson plans, historical information, etc. for each grade level, 2 through 12. The links are extensive and thorough, some are "cuter" than others, but most treat haiku and the teaching of it seriously. The lesson plans come from a wide variety of authors and are detailed and extensive; they range from 1 - 2 hour lessons to units that span several weeks. Well worth a look."
- Recommended Webpages for January 2002, Ohio State University Course

"An extensive array of pages containing a wealth of material on haiku offered by Michael P. Garofalo, a former library administrator who lives in California. Mr. Garofalo includes all this information as part of his larger Spirit of Gardening website. Links, biographies (not only of poets but of translator R. H. Blyth as well) and a great deal of other information make it a very useful site indeed."
- Mark Jewel, Basho and Haikai, 15 February 2001

"A very impressive gardening e-zine ... I look forward to many happy hours browsing it. What a joy it is to find so many creative and informed ways of sharing knowledge on the Internet! It just gets better and better every year! By the way, thanks for the extensive list of haiku links. It's bound to bring more gardeners into the haiku community."
- Jeanne Emrich, Haiga Online, 2 November 1999

"Features everything Haiku, from where and how to publish, to references on this genre."
- Resources for Poets, 1 May 2001

"Haiku Poetry: Links and References is a great site, and the accumulation of links is thorough and useful."
- Larry Gross 'Tishang', Asian Poetry: The Korean Sijo, 21 December 2000

"Great Site! Unquestionably, the best on the Web. I'm sure I'm not the first to notice the Herculean effort you've put into your site. You're making life easier for a lot of haijin and senryu writers out there."
- Richard Stevenson, Canadian Poet, 26 September 2000

"Just discovered your Zen page. Nine bows!"
- Gary Gach, 16 October 2003, What Book

"I just stumbled across your web page and was stunned. It's fantastic."
- Janine Beichman, Masaoka Shiki: His Life and Works, e-mail, 7 December 2002

"Thank you for the time taken to put together your Zen Poetry website, and for the opportunities and insights it holds."
- Bill Brown, Zen Time, 25 August 2001

"I teach religious studies at a small liberal arts college in Pennsylvania. I just wanted to drop you a note to let you know how much I appreciate your website. In particular, the Zen poetry is not only beautiful but useful in helping my students in an introductory class on Buddhism to understand (as much as it is possible to comprehend) emptiness. Thanks again, it is a rich, wonderful site."
- Allen Richardson, Cedar Crest College, 17 February 2005

Dozens of positive e-mail messages and awards for my Spirit of Gardening website.

"Your zen poetry website is outstanding!"
- Ken Wallace, e-mail, 26 February 2003, Buddha Activity

"Zen Poetry is our Spiritwalk Link of the Day."
- Roger Ebsen, Spiritwalk Portal, 23 November 2002

"The biggest list of English haiku sites I've ever found. A haiku site, which isn't mentioned here, can't exist!"
- Hans-Peter Kraus, Haiku, Haiku, 4 October 2000

"The most comprehensive, largest and most up-to-date guide to Haiku on the Internet. Title, author, and thematic access."
- Pilot-Search, Literary Search Web, 31 December 2000

Bundled Up: Quintains and Tankas

At the Edges of the West
Highway 101 and Hwy 1: Pacific Coast

Cuttings: Haiku, Senryu, Brief Poems

The Spirit of Gardening

Concrete Poetry

The Gushen Grove Sonnets

At the Edges of the Fertile West
Highway 99 and Interstate 5

Cantos of the Hands

Zen Poetry

"Short poems and haiku organized by month. Poems reflect the rural lifestyle of Red Bluff, California."
- William J. Higginson, Open Directory Haiku Editor, 11 April 2000

"Bravo for your visual poetry!"
- Joelle Dautricourt, Big Bang Faerie, 13 August 2002

"Your webpage is unique and your haiku delightful."
- Lucille Younger, Losing the Continents, 7 September 2000

"... very fine and sharp poems."
- Carlos Fleitas, (E)literature, 15 March 2001

"I read your August and September poems over my coffee this morning, an excellent recording of the tempo of summer and psyche."
- Ann Gleeson, The Body as Audience, 11 September 2000

"A fantastic collection of haiku links."
- Frans Kwaad, Haiku Schetsboek, 19 October 2000

"I am very much impressed with your webpage on R. H. Blyth. Your pages express a simple elegance, are informative, meaty, and easy to read."
- Richard Gilbert, e-mail 9 March 2002, Quiet Site

"Thank you for your Zen site, which is great."
- Luc Boussard, Zen and Art, 24 March 2002

"I have so enjoyed reading through your Haiku and Zen Poetry collection. An astonishing body of work."
- Pepper Provenzano, e-mail 27 October 2002, TreeLink

"I visited your webpages and think they can't be topped. They offer the most comprehensive information about the Haiku world."
- Gerd Borner, Deutsche Haiku Gesellschaft, 19 January 2001

"I love your haiku site."
- Wocojoe, WocoJoe's Web Magazine, 2 August 2000

"Poetry for the Gardener: Includes numerous examples of Taoist and Zen poetry. Most are based around simple living and gardening."
- Shen, DMOZ Open Directory Editor,
Religious Poetry - Taoism, 12 February 2001

"Your directories are probably the most comprehensive listing of haiku sites anywhere on the Internet."
- Gary Barnes (Sogi), e-mail, 9 September 2002, Haiku Poet's Hut

25 Steps and Beyond: The Collected Works

"A useful website. Thanks for your good work."
- Sam Hamill, translator and poet, e-mail, 20 August 2002

"I find myself disposed to call the reader's attention to a site which maps most, or all, it sometimes seems, of the large supplies of Zen poetry available on the web. The listings include sites, titles, commentaries, quotes, and extensive links to anything whatever relevant to the poet or poems, and can be found, as part of a larger assembly, at Zen Poetry, edited by Mike Garofalo."
- Sam Hazelhurst, Proverbial Zen, 27 August 2001

T he Vine - Garden Haiku
Comments by Carla Allen, 22 November 2002

"Over the years you have certainly made a fabulous contribution via your excellent web sites."
- Patricia Hackett and James W. Hackett, Maui, Hawaii, 27 Jan 2005
The Haiku and Zen World of James W. Hackett

"Some of the best collections of web links related to haiku."
- Millikin University, 26 October 2001, Links to Haiku Websites
Referring to Teaching Haiku Poetry and others.

"I am an elementary education student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. I am student teaching in a Fourth grade classroom and was looking for a way to assess and review the use of adjectives with my children. I decided to use Haiku poetry. I used your “Teaching Haiku Poetry” webpageto help learn about and plan the lesson. What a great website it is! There are so many resources. I learned so much! Thank you for this great resource!"
- Tabitha Day Thomas, e-mail, 6 November 2002

"I would just like to thank you for your website. It is just beautiful. I discovered it searching for a Zen poem to add to my term paper, and found just what I needed. Thank you again for taking the time to put together such a marvelous collection."
- Maria Monks, 4 April 2005

Dozens of positive e-mail messages and awards for my Spirit of Gardening website.

Referrals, Cross-Links: