Hands On
Touching, Handling, Feeling, Sensing
By Mike Garofalo
Working File, Poetry, Notes, Sketches
Practice, Studies, Ideas,
A Poem in Progress, 3/26/2025-
1. Two Hands & Ten Fingers
Feeling the Touches,
Touching to Feel—
lovers linger
languors hours.
Skin to Skin
Power into Power
clutching Intensities
hour after hour.
Fingers fly feelings into my mind,
brain and thumbs are aligned,
Each finger a Lightening pole
grounded down into my soul.
They searched carefully for a Sign
Of the sharp cutting Edge of the Mind.
They found it, picked it up, realized
their hands and fingers qualified.
Fingers were the Edge of the Mind,
their hands clapped over this Find.
She rubbed against the world,
touching with fingers curled.
Defining herself to herself:
Feeling things, touching one's self.
In whatever we touch, whatever we feel,
we leave traces of ourseves.
Our magical fingers cast spells,
Stamping Others with our Seal.
Eyes and hands
coordinated cooperatively
Two Hands, Two Eyes
measuring space
precisely planned
till habits are formed
inside the hands.
Manipulating what I see
active fingers, clever hands
help define a handy me
climbing up evolution's tree.
Two eyes, two hands,
ten fingers touching
Everything he can
not verboten in his land.
The hands achieve what
the eyes and mind can't;
By Doing, Actions, Work,
creative acts, giving back,
opening doors,
shaking hands,
pats on the back,
frisky fingers completing tasks.
The middle finger says
"up yours."
The index and middle V
tout inglorious victories, or
tout peace and pleasantries, or
rabbit ears shadowed by me.
Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down
approval, disaprovable displayed
everywhere all the time, all around.
2. A Gardener's Hands
A callused palm and dirty fingernails
precede a Green Thumb.
Not to move either hand, nor clap, nor think
too much are all good for zen gardening.
As you move your hands
so you move your mind.
As with most arts, gardening
is an expression of our hands.
Civilization is rooted
in the hands of the gardeners.
You can sometimes get a handle on life,
but it often breaks.
The eyes of a gardener are usually
bigger than her hands.
Gardening helps us to carefully attend
to the close at hand.
Chop the weeds and hose the water ...
the sounds of two hands clapping
with delight.
Unclench your fist to give a hand.
Your rich, famous, and handsome; and
your garden doesn't care.
The difference between a pile of rocks and a
rock garden?
The eyes and hands of the gardener.
Getting your hands dirty,
applies to more than gardening.
Better to lend a helping hand than
just to point a finger.
Put your hands on the earth and
feel the sorrows of the world.
Hold your hoe in your hand, sharpen it,
and fully sense its meaning.
I see my hand more often than my face,
and there is a lesson here to
grasp somehow.
3. Lost His Grip
Two Hands, Two Eyes:
Grasping for straws
Dropped his dreams
Hanging on for nothing
Spilled sour cream
Holding on to pain
Cut up into pieces
Stopped playing games
Lost his name
Gave Up Today!
He held the gun
in his hand
Pulled the trigger—
Killed Himself
as planned.
Lifeless blood soaked hand!
His dead body bagged in a
coroner's van.
Lost his Grip in the End!
4. Artists See the Hands
Rodin's Thinker,
his head in his hand,
worried about war in his land,
sits naked on a rocky throne
homeless, troubled, all alone.
Markham's weary Peasant
holding a hoe in his hand,
Leaning exhausted, bent tired and low.
Gleaning for a measly potato scrap
Lamenting the poverty
wherein he's trapped.
Cueva de las Manos in Argentina, artwork
created circa 7,300 BCE
4. My Fingers
My fingers were burned
bitten by dog and spider
sunburnt, cut by knives,
banged in doors
broken in karate
pinched by tools
slapped by a Nun's ruler
and, unfortunately, even more
My fingers learn to write
to type, to use a fork,
to comb my hair
turn pages in a book
to pleasure my down under,
to fire a gun, to pull weeds
and, sucessfully, even more.
My fingers felt the World
touched the water
felt the fire
grabbed a safety bar
embraced a lover
patted a dog
held a baby, planted seeds,
and, with real feelings, even more.
My fingers pointed the way,
shook hands
counted my cash
gave CPR
soaped my back
gestured artfully
penciled poetry
and, enthusastically, even more
################
Saxophone played by fingers and hands
Piano played by hands and fingers
What can be done without your hands? Nothing much, without other's hands? Artificial hands, made by other's hands help you get along without your hands. Learning from books
Nazi SS raised their hands,
Sig Heil, salute held high
He held the flowers
clutched the dreams
Holding on to complacency
grasping for simple touted
certainties never realized
handing over our fates
held tightly by underestimates
Feeling her tender touch
to my trembling hands
reassuring sensitivity to
my worried painful
the matter at hand
he counted his friends on his hands no fingers
Feeling the touch, touching to feel
I had a hand in creating
gardens, blog, webpages, nice home,
washing dishes, soaping my ass back head
soaping up my hands
cleaning fingernails
the homeless crippled veteran
with one arm blown off in Vietnam
Hands, Fingers, Arms
Notes, Research, Bibliography,
Links, Sources, Favorites
Touching: intimacy, healing,
therapeutic, exploratory,
inquisitive
Touch, clutch, much, such,
thrust, insomuch, hutch
hand, band, grand, fanned, land
canned, planned, sand, stand, strand,
deckhand, dockhand, farmhand,
handstand, homeland,
command,
longhand, offhand
Finger, linger, badfinger, five fingered,
fore-finger, thinker
mind, find, blind, bind, grind, hind, kind,
lines, mines, pines, rind, signed, tined,
twined vines, chined, wined, shined dined
—
All documents by Mike Garofalo
25 Steps and Beyond: Collected Works
At the Edges of the West, Volume 1
Highway 101 and Hwy 1: Pacific Coast
At the Edges of the West, Volume 2
Highway 99 and Interstate 5
Poetry Research by Mike Garofalo
Hands On
Fingers and Hands and Skin
Touching, Feeling, Manipulating, Sensing
Eye-Hand Coordination, Tool Using, Somaesthetics
Somatosensory System, Somatics, Haptics, Proprioperception
Identity and Actions, Self and Praxis, Language and Touch
Cloud Hands Blog Posts About Hands
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 27, 2025.