Cuttings: January

Haiku and Short Poems
Winter and Spring Season
1998 - 2025

By Mike Garofalo

Place, Setting, Location:

Red Bluff, Tehama County,
North Sacramento Valley,
California, 1998-2016

Pointing at the moon,
making a point—
her lovely fingers.

Narcissus stems
slowly rise again—
cool rain.

Black birds
swarm on
by ...

filling
sunset
skies.

Transfixed,
I watched
listening ...

a screeching hawk
drifts on the wind—
so lonely

Bent low
by the dying dog
he cried
by the grimy roadside
as cars whizzed by.

Boxcars rumble
through Red Bluff—
winds whip Mt. Lassen.

Interview with the master,
over before it began;
He rings the bell,
next dokusan.

Red Bank bridge
swept away—
circling hawk.

New Year's Day—
fog covered
mucky clay.

frozen puddles—
the crack of axes
from four directions

January sun—
puddle after puddle
becomes mud.

Buddha is dead!
But, if you meet the Buddha
don't invent another god
or behead another demon;
Just
sip some tea under a tree.

"If you meet the Buddha, kill him."
- Linji Yizuan
(Rinzai Gigen, Jap.), c 866 CE

Narcissus blooming
over wet clay—
dreams of Easter.

Red berries
on evergreens—
Chinese New Year

ripping out
a walnut orchard—
diesel smoke

mother and son
hand in hand—
a gentle rain

J January
A always
N nips
U uplifts
A aims
R rain
Y yesterday's ways

Bulbs, dirt rows,
the noonday sun—
but
Where is the One?

She gave away
everything today—
Leaving this world!

57 reasons for celebration

oatmeal in a bowl
coffee in a cup
another birthday today
Gulp

colored cards on the counter
cold ashes in the stove
wrinkled face in the mirror
old, older, Old

Midnight—
humming hard drive
ticking clock

she giveth and
taketh away—
pruning roses

back gate open
dogs gone—
foggy dawn

Somehow—
wrinkled and gray
another decade.

In the blink of Time's Eye
we lived, we died;
while stone faced Shasta
was silent.

The center never was within.
The box of monsters was empty.
We break apart from the edges,
Slip away piece by piece,
Washed away by a half-million hours.

She grunted out
a last squat rack rep,
Under gleaming steel
speckled with sweat.

standing in the dark—
backlit by a thousand stars
pissing on gravel

Surrounded by raindops—
walkers
at daybreak.

an old man
steadies his father—
a rainbow appears

baby blue
empty sky—
dawn of a new year

Four by four tire-tracks
criss-crossing green fields—
the karma of TV commercials.

tinted green,
it puddles in my brain
cold rain

she walks by
followed by my eyes—
desires linger

The moon's low, a crow caws,
The landscape's laced with frost.
Under the riverside maples,
Lit by fishing lamps,
My sadness keeps me from sleep.
Beyond old Suzhou town,
Down to the traveler's boats,
Han Shan's Temple bell
Rings clear—
Right at midnight.

—A nod to Zhang Ji, circa 780 CE
"Night Mooring at Maple Bridge"

scraping ice
down the windshield—
squeaking fanbelt

leafless twigs
appear in the fog—
a robin spies a worm

Of things mechanical I have little ken,
I fumble and fuss from start to end.
Where a mechanic pushes right
I pull left till things stick-tight,
And bend things that I shouldn't bend.

raindrops on windshields
whooshed away—
dark roads

The Black Widow spider's
cottony eggs in cordwood—
in flames.

old Highway 99
zoned for trailer trashers—
rusted appliance museums

side-stepping every
sidewalk crack—
my psychic cellphone rings

A staff in his right hand,
a pearl in his left,
Jizo at the crossroads.

frosted grasses
white dawn,
New Year's Day

sock cap
pulled
down
cozy ears

Ono roadside cafe—
three gleaming Harleys
catch all eyes

far below
Clear Creek bridge—
smashed pumpkins

Oranges sway
in the cool breeze—
sunlight on a pitchfork

When the bitter Winter
falls on the rootless tree,
And the strong winds bend it low,
It often snaps dead-free,
And breaks apart
on the frozen snow.

I turn and stare into the foggy mist;
Wondering, wondering,
about what I missed.

Leafless vines
intertwined in the trellis—
Mt. Shasta glimmers

Coming home
long necked geese—
Canadian-Americans.

A warm rest for
coots, geese, and ducks—
wet rice fields.

The white geese
ascend from the far fields
fleeing popping shotguns.

The honking geese
a quacking cacophony
flapping overhead.

Flocks of white
geese in the light gray fog—
this way and that way.

rain-soaked soil
sticking on shoes
sopping wet socks

four green bales
lie in the Chevy's bed—
bellowing cows

Dutiful dogs
sit and stare—
Sentries at the Borders

County Jail—
thirty minute visit over
broken phones

Murmuring rooftop
gurgling gutter lines—
stalled winter storm.

cold rattlesnakes
let the ghosts play—
Igo graveyard

dressing
still sleepy
work day

my boys
bright eyed—
a tray of cookies

brushing my dog—
a cow licks
her calf's eye

My poems: often, barely;
when good,
rarely.

disappearing souls:
empty seedpods,
scattered bones

a smile crosses
my lips—
oranges in the sunshine

Loosing ground from
unconscious rounds
Of the "This is Not It" mantra sounds;
Burning holes in my soul
Over and over, no loopholes
For escape. None!
Replay Mind... Spellbound.

sadistic eyes
among the crowds—
stalking his prey

Lily
out of season
out of the florist's case

beyond the blinds—
blue dawn,
nude corkscrew willows

Six steps forward and
Seven steps back—
The Earth remains.

Hidden by the fog—
Mountains,
noisy magpies.

Toying with nine ideas like
one old cottonwood holds
nine magpies.

Pica nutalli: The Yellow
Billed Magpie of California

Reminding us,
his old finger trembling:
"just one thing!"

truckers in lines
miles in front, miles behind—
rough right lanes

don't know mind
as wide as the empty sky
above the dogma fogs
blinding the brilliant eyes
with hazy religious lies

Y2K
came and went
but doomsday daydreams linger

He Awoke
in a Tunnel of Light—
only the living tell.

fifty nine years
to the day, today,
since I first cried, and
raised my fingers
towards the sky

Walt Whitman's
stony tomb—
no leaves of grass.

bone dry
dog turds
laced with frost

frozen weeds,
dead brown
killed by January

The flying Sea drops
raindrops on the leafless grove;
teardrops of joy.

the leafless poplars sway
a warm and windy Winter's day—
grackles chattering

Snow geese
flew down from Siberia—
muddy grain fields
outside Tokyo

her snores
muffled in the covers—
counting the minutes

Countless orgasms
waste a man's prana
so Sri Swami says.
Krishna as Kandarpa say
"Sex is Power."
[Gita 10.28]

cold floors and feet
slip along numb toes
shoeless at bedtime

Wisely winking
with words
poets laugh in the Winter's night.

This cabbage, these carrots,
these potatoes, these onions
will all soon become me.
Such a tasty fact.

Bless the farm!
Bless the market!
Bless the kitchen!

Five Precepts:
compassion, honesty, fairness,
moderation, sobriety.

beyond this year
or a year ago—
a growing vagueness

Wet sidewalks
littered with leaves—
slippery.

Pacific Jet Stream gales
rumbling over backyards;
howling Winter dawn.

Cooks coughing in the kitchen—
suddenly,
I'm not hungry.

his best suit
clean and pressed—
a matching casket

Between the Sun
and the nearest Black Hole;
my home.

the bigot's nightmare:
M. L. King's dream
celebrated tonight

nobody
wins in war
no body

Place, Setting, Location:

Vancouver, Clark County,
Columbia River Valley,
Washington, 2017-2025

J justifiably
A alarmed
N nervous
U unarmed
A alert
R ready
Y yield not

More poems coming later
in 2025 from old file folders.

Cloud Hands Blog

Quotes for Gardeners

Zen Poetry

25 Steps and Beyond: Collected Works

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

The Gushen Grove Sonnets

Bundled Up: Tanka Poetry

At the Edges of the West, Volume 2
Highway 99 and Interstate 5

Cuttings: Haiku and Short Poems
Arranged by the Seasons

Mike Garofalo lives in Vancouver,
Washington. He worked for 50 years
in city and county public libraries,
and in elementary schools. He
graduated with degrees in
philosophy, library science, and
education. He has been a web
publisher since 1998.

Biography

25 Steps and Beyond: Collected Works

Text Art and Concrete Poetry

Copyrighted © 1998-2025
by Michael P. Garofalo.
Green Way Research
All rights reserved

Cuttings: January, Winter

First Distributed on the Internet
in September 1999.
Updated in March of 2017.

This webpage work is licensed
under a Creative Commons
Attribution-NonCommercial-
NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Created by Michael P. Garofalo,
Green Way Research,
Valley Spirit Center,
Gushen Grove Notebooks,
Vancouver, WA © 2025 CCA 4.0.

This document was last edited, revised,
reformatted, added to, relinked,
changed, improved, or modified
by Mike Garofalo
on April 3, 2025.