Transitions
Tercets, Haiku, Epigrams
(2017-2024)
By Mike Garofalo
You can sometimes
get a handle on life,
but it often breaks.
cellphone
rings—
selling things
soft pillow—
sleepy
tired eyes
giving back—
eye for eye
tit for tat
March
largest organ
our skin—
bruised shin
Lakshmi provides
prosperity—
Kali ignores poverty
trilobite fossils
fascinate me—
living beings mineralized
drifting asleep ...
myoclonic jerk—
sprung open my eyes
could not recall
familiar names—
scary moments
In general, be more specific.
To put a bigger hat on an idea—
Capitalize its Key Words.
"Mas o menos" is often quite sufficient.
a homeless man shivers—
home of the free
land of the hungry
April
bright lamp
white page
pencil scratching
a plop of shit
down the outhouse hole—
no paper
freeway wreck
traffic stalled—
playing my harmonica
Mendocino
soil and sun—
Rhododendrons
Learning how to see
Beyond
what is in front of me
Listening to crowing
Crows
cawing raucous melodies
Feeling my stepping
Feet
stacatto steps on cold streets
Discovered complexities
Walking
over ideas flowing under me
Learned how to be
Me
imbedded in other realities
Funeral Blues
soul vanished
body died—
consolations of lies
his gray hair
brushed—
funeral cosmetics
the Smells of
multi-colored wreaths—
perfumed corpse
he looked good
for a corpse—
dressed perfectly
Amazing Grace
funeral blues—
tears on the casket
a coffin
for a home—
unconfined anywhere anymore
A small card summarized
his life in 49 lines,
read in 75 seconds.
Goodbye!
requiem in pacem
nowhere
beyond time
Tools of the Trade:
Abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
abcdefghijklmn
opqrstuvwxyz—
Zyxwvutsrqpo
Nmlkjihgfedcba...
Tercets and Haiku Research
English Language Haiku and Tercet Poems
By Mike Garofalo
Research, Studies, Notes
Bibliography, Links, Docs
A Little Book on Form: An Exploration into the Formal Imagination of Poetry. By Robert Hass. Ecco-Harper, 2018, 446 pages. Tercets, pp. 53-83.
The Essential Poet's Glossary. By Edward Hirsch. 2017, 385 pages. VSCL.
Hiddenness, Uncertainty, Surprise: Three Generative Energies of Poetry. By Jane Hirshfield. 2008, 64 pages. VSCL.
The Zen of Haiku: 1000 Tiny Poems. By Jay Verney.
Little Poems. Edited by Michael Hennessy. Everyman's Library Pocket Poets Series. 2023, 256 pages. Hardcover, VSCL.
Tercet, Triad, Triplet,
Terza Rima: aba bcb cdc
Invented by Dante Alighieri, Divine Comedy, 1305
Used by: Chaucer, Shelley, Randall Jarret, Robert Pinsky, Wallace StevensVSCL.
Cuttings: Haiku and Tercets (1998-2016)
Transitions: Haiku and Tercets (2017-2024)
Stopping to See: Haiku and Tercets (2025-)
25 Steps and Beyond: Collected Works
Epigrams, Quips, Sayings: 1,000 One Liners
Tao Te Ching: Concordance, Anthology
Zen Poetry: Bibliography, Links, Resources
Poetry Research by Mike Garofalo
At the Edges of the West, Volume 2
Highway 99 and Interstate 5
At the Edges of the West, Volume 1
Highway 101 and Hwy 1
Reginald Horace Blyth (1898 - 1964)
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.
25 Steps and Beyond; Collected Works
This document was last edited, revised,
reformatted, added to, relinked,
changed, improved, or modified
by Mike Garofalo
on March 21, 2025.