Slippery Sentences Dematerialized

Syntax melts into calligrammes
Dictionaries lack verbs
Pages and pages of punctuation marks
Semantics smack of misunderstandings
Poems simply dematerialized

A limber metaphor walks through water
Messages leak and bleed on paper
Nouns found a time to hum
Periods became black blank zeros
Quintains morphed into Sonnets

Predicates dissolved into Objects
Adjectives unspoooo
                                     oooooo
oooled into Hieroglyphs
Cliches retreated into walls of phonemes
Truth became shy and subtle
The bridge of silence collapsed.

Enclosed Potentials

     book unopened
          hidden potential
covered insights
closed ideas
     Waiting...

Reacting in Time

The chessboard patterns
different each time...
     Like my changing life,
     complicated and intense.
Reacting when others move.

- Compare with:
See also Paul Celan, Index of Titles A-Z.
Bob Perelman, An Alphabet of Literary History.
Harryette Mullen, Blah-Blah, and Jingle Jangle.
Amaranth Borsuk, Show of Hands.

Reference Sources:

Against Expression: An Anthology of Conceptual
Writing, 656 pages, 2011. Edited by Craig Dworkin.

Artifice and Indeterminacy: An Anthology of New Poetics,
392 pages, 1998. Edited by Christopher Beach.

The L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E Book: Poetics of the New.
Edited by Charles Berstein and Bruce Andrews.
312 pages, 1984.

The Marginalization of Poetry: Language Writing
and Literary History, 187 pages, 1996.
By Bob Perelman.

Listening to Change

I listened to another say
what I resisted to hear
what was alien to me
what outlined my ire
what I wanted to fight

But then I settled down
loosened my blockhead mind

Thought things over patiently,
listened more carefully,
saw matters from other sides,
respected the integrity
and sincerity of other kinds

Of thinking outside my closed boxes
of my habits of opinions needing overhaul.

Dying is a Hard Journey

Dying is such a depressing waste
    a wasting away of dignity
        facing the firing squad of some disease
            your own body murders you with ease
                twenty names for your miseries.

    Can't hide in the woods or city,
Dying spares no home, nor has any pity.

Dying can be over instantly
        in an hour, month, season, or years.
Dying can be around the corner
        or in a house in south Spokane.
Dying ends with an open mouth sigh.
      Dying and Death, the Faces of Janus.
      Dying is Death's Emissary, both liars.

Dying and I shared a final toast;
Before She finally released my ghost.

A Collage of Manifesto Bullets

what you don't say
           is as important as
           what you do say---
and vice-versa

spontaneous perceptions
                      change directions
willy-nilly            Improvised

one perception should
                      directly            lead to
another perception ... Directly!!

Follow the Breath
like a jazz saxophonist:
in and out, stop and start, flowing freely

doubts embrace the hemistich
irony precedes the enjambment
confusion follows the non-sequiturs
randomness hugs ambient metaphors

The poetic work ethic:
       constantly prodding,
               ever scrutinizing,
                        relentlessly wording,
                        swimming in stanzas.

Self-correct like a skeptic.
Delay the punchline ... then Punch!
The unspoken space leaves a heavy silence.

Attend closely to things and perceptions
           avoid intellectual digressions.
Focus on Locality---Our Places in Reality!

Avoid historic styles, meter, rhymes and
                      "that traditional stuff."
Be more lean and buff!

                      The open-field is beautiful;
           The closed-field grows vegetables.
Take your pick when your in a pinch.

           The desire for the Objectively Perfect:
                      rooted in our history,
           fixed to our place Inside
                     current real particularities.

words cover the pages post-haste,
don't stop much to meditate---
           go, go, Go ... don't hesitate!

I don't hate speech
              very often
                             so .......

reduce the i-me-my
no confessionals please:
           Depersonalize

Don't tell a story;
            hesitate to fictionalize.
Yes, there are characters,
           but keep them dry.
          Slide down on an anti-narrative prolixity.

Narrative suppress immediate attention.
The story keeps us focused on the story.
The potholes of plots can hypnotize.
Narratives trend towards conventional conformity.

To be more creative---overcome
                            your fears
of being wrong
              or making mistakes.

                      Even for old news
                      MAKE IT New!
Making your poetry:
Make it New, Make it Strange,
Make it Now, Make it Yours,
Make it Better, Make it True.
Make it Reveal, Make it Change.

Some poems are better
              Read
               than
              Said.
Let the speaker set the pace;                 or,
Let the reader set the pace?
The eyes and/or ears
                both have plans.

- A Collage of Sources:
Robert Creely, Mike Garofalo, Allen Ginsberg,
Charles Olson, Bob Perelman, Ezra Pound,
Ron Silliam, Louis Zukofsky, W.C. Williams.

Bundled Up:

Quintains, Tankas, Pentastichs, and Onions

Original Quintain Poetry By Mike Garofalo

Bundled Up, Volume 1
Wakas, Quintillas, Tankas, Quintets
Quintain Poems 1 - 1,000

Bundled Up, Volume 2
Gogyohkas, Limericks, Wakas
Rhymes, Remarks, Listenings, Insights
Quintain Poems 1,000 - 1,500

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

Bundled Up, Volume 4
Remarks, Rhymes, Seeings, Onions
Quintain Poems 2,000 - 2,500

Bundled Up, Volume 5
Quintain Sonnets, Time, TextArt, Koans, Remarks
Quintain Poems 2,500 - 3,000

Bundled Up, Volume 6
Quintain Sonnets, Time, Language, Thought
Quintain Poems 3,000 - 3,500

Bundled Up, Volume 7
Quintains, Delight, Strangeness, Things, Beauty
Quintain Poems 3,500 - 4,000

Bundled Up, Volume 8
Experimental, Surreal, Conceptual, Text-Art
All types of Poetry 4,000 - 4,500

Bundled Up, Volume 8
Experimental, Surreal, Conceptual, Text-Art
All types of Poetry 4,000 - 4,500

Bundled Up, Volume 9
Collaborative Poetry
MPGarofalo and Ms. Ai
All types of Poetry 4,500 - 5,000

Quintains - Research

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. Selected Poetry by mpgarofalo.

Cuttings: Haiku, Senryu, Brief Poems

Five Corners of Time

Pulling Onions

At the Edges of the West
A Docu-Poem

Poetry, Quintains, TextArt, Research, Compilation,
Photos, Series, Indexing:
By Michael Peter Garofalo
© Green Way Research, Valley Spirit Center,
Gushen Grove Notebooks, Vancouver, Washington
© 2021-2026 CCA 4.0

This work is licensed under a:
Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-No-Derivates
4.0 International License. Selected Poems, by mpgarofalo.

This document was last edited, revised,
reformatted, added to, relinked,
changed, improved, or modified
by Michael Peter Garofalo [mpgarofalo]
on September 1, 2026.