I was born on January 23, 1946 in Los Angeles. Today, I am 80 years of age. Happy Birthday to Me!
My brief biography and a more extensive biography are found online.
My resume is online. My Cloud Hands Blog has been online since 2005.
I have been employed as a webmaster since 1998.
We laughed over dinner in the Village at Bodega Bay. The shrimp scampi and grilled asparagus, plated to perfection, tasty beyond belief, remembered to this day. Brothers and wives, six old carriers of fading memories, sat together chatting over wine and fancy local cheese.
From our comfortable hotel suites we gazed at the wind-surfers sliding around the quiet harbor today, heard children talking in the shade, walked up to vista points, smelled the salty spray, wondered about our futures fading fast day by day.
Talked about our surgeries, our children's escapades and failures, our trips to places faraway, our dead friends and family erased from time, and our petty habits that directed our minds.
The grassy hills, carpets of green, a few wildflowers of early spring, spread over smooth rounded mounds of earth bordering this quaint smallish bay.
We walked and talked, ruminated, reflected on what we once saw and what we missed. Since we all had worked, saved, invested, and retired, lived in California all our lives, in a peaceful time, our experiences reflected our conservative bourgeois lives.
We drove south along Highway 1, along the lush hills encasing narrow Tomales Bay. Forests of fragrant eucalyptus trees, dense, flaky barked, for miles and miles as far as one could see. Dead pointed arrow-tipped leaves spread thick beneath our booted feet. Eucalyptus seed pods, gnarled and round, twisted in our fingers fragrantly.
The shallow Tomales Bay was calm, subdued, and colored in shades of gray. Drivers in the traffic from Frisco, escaping city life, streamed steadily though these rural scenes, past hip cafes, and souvenir packed shops. Headed up the coast, kind of lost, but not, just pretending to be explorers or adventurers ... but they were not. Just folks with cash, like us, tourists on a weekend lark.
Below the slender 15 mile long Tomales Bay estuary, Deep Below, under miles of salty rocks, crawling slowly, pushing-pushing, inching along, invisible and real, the Immense San Andreas Fault. One side of the shallow bay moves northwest, the other side shifts south. If the San Andreas Fault faulted, split, rifted, strike-shifted, exploded, rock and rolled ... the earthquakes would send tsunami waves to the height of young Madrone trees, and slash Inverness, Marshall, and Point Reyes Stations to rubbled ground! Leaving broken houses, wrecked cars, rotting herring, salmon, eels, sturgeon, halibut, and human bits scattered all around. Always a disastrous possibility!
Yet, I did not worry, can't fret about every unpredictable or unknown threat. Just enjoyed eating a fine carnitas tamale and flirted with a Hot Tamale Lady in a Olema cafe; that's It! Little time to dwell on Death ... the inevitable ultimate Rift.
My brother and I gazed to the South, wistfully, at Sonoma State Beach, near where the Russian River empties down into the Pacific Sea. We were older, wiser, but listing steeply toward our ends from disease. Memories from 2019 ... crumbling.
This poem is one part of:
At the Edges of the West
Highway 101 and 1
Memories of Pacific Coast Places
By Mike Garofalo
25 Steps and Beyond: The Collected Works
By Mike Garofalo
Tai Chi Chuan Instruction in 2025-
The Yang Style of T'ai Chi Ch'uan
Private or Group Lessons
Instructor: Mike Garofalo, M.S., B.A.
In Clark County, Washington State:
Vancouver, Battleground, Camas,
Orchards, Salmon Creek, Minnehaha,
Prairie Creek, Five Corners, Felida,
Sunnyside, City Center, Mill Plain
Contact Mike Garofalo by Email or Phone
Teaching and practicing the Yang Style
Taijiquan Short 24 Movements Form,
the Standard Long 108 Movements Form,
Cane, and Qigong
Cost for Lessons:
$20 per hour for one person
$30 per hour for two persons
Senior Citizen Discounts
Large Group Discounts
Long Time Student Discounts
Gratuities Always Welcome
Location of Lessons:
9102 NE 100th Street
Vancouver, WA 98662
Also at Nearby Locations
Websites: Cloud Hands Tai Chi Chuan
Blog: Cloud Hands Blog
Qigong (Chi Kung), Longevity Practice
Instructor: Michael P. Garofalo
Qualifications and Experience
I began learning Yang Style Taijiquan and
Qigong in 1986, and have taught these
Body-Mind Somatic Arts since 2000.
I also taught Hatha and Vinyasa Yoga
in Red Bluff, CA, from 2003-2016.
All of my Yoga and T'ai Chi Ch'uan
Classes Include Some Qigong
(Chinese Yoga) Practices
In 2025, I am 79 years of age.
I began learning Yang Style Taijiquan and Qigong from
1986-1990 with Sensei Frank McGourick in Whittier, California.
I studied Lui Ho Ba Fa and Qigong with Sifu Robert Moore from 1987-1990 in Whittier, California.
I studied Red Dragon Kung Fu from 1991-1993 with Sensei Tony Ippolito in Hacienda Heights, California.
I taught over 950 one hour classes of Taijiquan and Qigong in Red Bluff, California, from 2000-2017.
I also practice the Chen 18 Style of Taijiquan and Sun 73 Style
of Taijiquan, the cane weapon, and many Qigong forms.
Tai Chi for Diabetes Instructor Trained and Certified by Dr. Paul Lam in 2003.
Tai Chi for Arthritis Level 2 Instructor (Sun Style) Trained and Certified by Troyce Thome in 2006.
Advanced Tai Chi and Qigong training at workshops or classes led by Robert Moore, Paul Lam, Ken Cohen,
Patricia Long, George Xu, Elaine Waters,
Bill Helm, Doc Fai-Wong, Sher K. Lew,
Kevin Weaver, Troyce Thome, Yang Jun,
David Fetyko, and Brian Knack.
I taught Hatha and Vinyasa Yoga in Red Bluff from 2003 to 2016 for over 1,460 hours of one hour classes.
YogaFit Level IV Certified Yoga Instructor (Standard 200 Hour Yoga Alliance Curriculum Completed) in 2004.
Over 100 hours of additional yoga training with Dr. Paula Barros, Desiree Rambaugh, and at the Ananda Yoga Center.
All of my Yoga Classes include some Qigong (Chinese Yoga).
Personal Fitness Trainer Certified by AFAA 2007
Mat Pilates AFAA Certified 2005
Spin Cycling AFAA Certified 2005
Aerobics and Fitness Association of America (AFAA) Certifications
SilverSneakers Trained Instructor 2012
CPR and AED certified from 1999-2017, 2024-.
Emergency 30-Day Substitute Teaching Permit, 4/1999-4/2017
Certified by the State of California Commission
on Teacher Credentialing.
M.A. Education, 40 units, CSU Chico.
M.A., Philosophy, 30 units at CSU Los Angeles.
M.S., Library and Information Science,
University of Southern California, 1968
B.A. Philosophy, CSU Los Angeles, 1967
My telephone number in 2025 is 530-200-0750.
Qigong
(Chinese Warm-up Exercises, Chinese Yoga,
Chi Kung, Energy Development, Energy Work)
Eight Section Brocade Qigong (Ba Duan Gin)
Five Animal Frolics Qigong (Wu Qin Xi)
The Magic Pearl Medicine Ball Qigong
Ba Gua Circle Walking Eight Mother Palms
Entering Tranquility: Standing Meditation
Silk Reeling and Circles in Taijiquan
Muscle-Tendon Changing Qigong (Yi Jin Jing)
25 Steps and Beyond: Collected Works
Updated on April 12, 2025
Bookstore Dilemma
Barnes and Noble
bookstore browsed—
the smell of new books
and coffee brewed,
tasty poetry books to peruse.
Poetry books
on fifteen shelves:
which one? which one?
My wallet wants to force a choice:
just one! just one!
Louise Gluck or Santoka Taneda
which one? which one?
Hungry to meet and hear from them;
[ignoring my wallet's advice]
I bought Both!
Books are alive and talk repeatedly.
25 Steps and Beyond: Collected Works
US Highway 99 and Interstate 5
Cuttings: Haiku, Short Verses, Epigrams
Poetry, Anthologies, Indexes
Studies, Blog, Guides, Travel
Ethics, Art, Koans, Spirituality
US Highway 99 and Interstate 5
Cuttings: Tercets, Haiku, Epigrams
Daodejing: Indexes, Concordance, Anthology
727 Riddles, Jokes, Brain Teasers
Haiku - North Sacramento Valley
At the Edges of the West, Volume 1
At the Edges of the Fertile West, Volume 2
The Wreck Ahead Comes Into View
The Raven Broke Open the Magical Clam
Pulling Onions: 1,000 One Liners
Meetings with Master Chang San Feng
Memories of Pacific Coast Places
One Old Daoist Druid's Final Journey
Uncle Mike's Cellphone Poetry Series
Fireplace Records Koan Collection
Epigrams, Quips, Sayings: 1,000 One Liners
Tao Te Ching: Concordance, Anthology
Zen Buddhist Koans: Research, Indexes
Blooming Onions Pulled from the Mind-Ground
Monthly Observations and Poetry
Neo-Pagan Spirituality Studies
Cuttings: Haiku and Tercets (1998-2016)
Transitions: Haiku and Tercets (2017-2024)
Stopping to See: Haiku and Tercets (2025-)
A Gift of Dried Garlic Flowers
the scissors of my decisions
more to come ...
Mike Garofalo lives in Vancouver, Washington,
Orchards & Five Corners Neighborhoods
Northeast Clark County.
He is available for public readings or gigs
in Vancouver, Portland, south to Salem,
and north to Olympia.
He writes, reads and studies Poetry.
His hobbies include: gardening,
web publishing, walking adventures,
harmonica playing, yurt camping,
reading, playing, studying, blogging,
Taijiquan, writing, string figures,
exploring the Northwest USA.,
research studies and local trips.
He has been web publishing since
1998 at Green Way Research.
Mike is 80 years of age.
He has a decent, pleasant, and
friendly speaking voice.
He is a big tall elderly gent.
Best to send him email to:
mpgarofalobooks@gmail.com
At the Edges of the West, Volume 1
Highway 101 and Hwy 1
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.
Haiku - North Sacramento Valley
Exhibits at the Cyber Garden Gazebo: TextArt
At the Edges of the West, Volume 1
At the Edges of the West, Volume 2
Cuttings: Month by Month Snippings
The Raven Broke Open the Magical Clam
Pulling Onions: 1,000 One Liners
Meetings with Master Chang San Feng
Uncle Mike's Cellphone Poetry Series
Fireplace Records Koan Collection
Tao Te Ching: Concordance, Anthology
Zen Buddhist Koans: Research, Indexes
Monthly Observations and Poetry
the scissors of my decisions
more to come ...
