(This titling thing I’m doing is gonna get complicated!)
Haiku 2
bee clings to clover
bumbles through spring’s new blossoms
vernal blessings thrive
National Poetry Month Day 3: Poem 3, Haiku 2
Author Archives: Michelle Garren-Flye
National Poetry Month Day 2: Poem 2, Sonnet 1
Sonnet 1
Spring Power
By Michelle Garren-Flye
Spring has its own kind of power,
it gets straight from Apollo.
April’s blessings blossom and shower
along the flower path you follow.
How long has it been since you felt the sun
shine on your shoulders, making you happy
(like John used to say, in the yarn he spun)?
Winter was so long and the weather, crappy.
In the evening, sit down to watch the star shine
as the sky goes from blue to orange to black.
No velvet cloth has ever been so fine
as this background is for the zodiac.
Be still as the clouds gather for rain…
With luck, it will only bring passing pain.
National Poetry Month Day 1: Poem 1, Haiku 1
Haiku 1
April showers blessings
warm weather and flower paths
rain comes later on
Poem: Sidewalk Stroll
Today is my birthday, so I wrote a poem. It’s still pretty rough, and it’s actually two poems since I’m still doing the sonnet-from-a-haiku thing. Anyway, here it is along with the photo I took that inspired it.
Misty morn in spring
Sidewalk stretches steadily
I’m caught in happy
Sidewalk Stroll on my birthday
By Michelle Garren-Flye
Today, the day I turn fifty-something,
I see the sidewalk stretch ahead,
a true flower path on this day in spring,
warmth after the winter we suffered.
I salute the sun, bathe in the breeze,
meander about in midnight moonlight;
happy to live for a moment at ease
with nothing to mourn, no one to fight.
Grateful for all that gives my life spice
because living too easy just makes you fat.
For true happiness, you must pay a price
and sometimes it will knock you down flat.
Today, I know I’ll follow my sidewalk to the end;
I’ll round every corner, never hesitate at a bend.
Photo and poem copyright 2025 Michelle Garren-Flye
Celebrating 50,000 words
I just wrote the 50,000th word of my latest work-in-progress. This is significant to me because I haven’t gotten that far on a novel since 2020. I’ve written plenty of poems and actually published several poetry books, but a novel? Ha! My muse wasn’t talking.
But all that changed with this idea. I’ve started and restarted it at least three times. I’ve tried different settings, different time periods, different characters…and it finally seems to be working out. Never being one to do things in order, I made myself a working cover to help keep myself on task. And, in a fairly weird reversal of never judge a book by its cover, I love the cover so much the book has to be written!
So, as a celebration, here’s the preview of the cover (still may change a bit…or a lot) and a brief summary of what it’s all about.
I’m excited!
Set in 18th century England, in an alternate universe where magic and religion are both equated and outlawed, Callie, a natural mage, has hidden her powers all her life while working as a kitchen maid. Callie is discovered in the woods one night by Samir, a servant of the Muses who is traveling England as Lord Wildingham. After witnessing Callie’s magic, Samir recruits his friend Dionysus to accompany him to the manor where Callie works.
Samir remembers nothing but servitude to the Muses, Callie knows nothing but concealing her magic. Yet together, the two realize they are much more. Their mutual discoveries lead them on a search for the lost pithos of Pandora. The journey tests their love and their beliefs, as they hunt down the sins released from Pandora’s pithos.
Ranging from the countryside of England to London to the mountains of Greece and beyond, Laws of Lightning imagines a world where magic and mythology intertwine with the conventions of Georgian England.
Poem for Mama: What Happens to the Love?
My mother, Geraldine “Gerry” Garren, 84, passed away two years ago on this day. I wrote this for her, but it was also inspired by others I know who are suffering. This month has been a cruel one for many.
I hope this will give someone hope, because I truly believe that if you love someone and they love you, death does not take that love. I don’t think it can.
This poem is my theory of what happens to that love…and why it makes your heart ache.
What Happens to the Love?
By Michelle Garren-Flye
Losing you left all the edges:
your love moved into my heart…
god it hurts when it stretches.
Indelible, your love stresses;
oh, can I bear this part?
Losing you left me with edges.
Death can’t claim successes,
so love moves in with art,
causes aches as it stretches.
Accept the way it presses
and tears your chest apart;
losing someone leaves edges.
Patience, time progresses
and lightens what once was hard.
Just breathe as the heart stretches.
Grief is the way love compresses
your love and mine as one in my heart.
Yes, it hurts when it stretches,
and sometimes I still feel the edges.
Poem: Can’t Touch
Happy Valentine’s Day! (with respect to M.C. Hammer)
Can’t Touch
By Michelle Garren-Flye
Nothing ever really touches
so you can’t touch my heart.
No matter how the blood rushes,
I’m untouchable from the start.
Tis just the repulsion of electrons
that you feel upon your hand.
That’s what fires up your neurons;
it’s nothing like love so grand.
No atom will share its ground
no matter how you may sigh.
To laws of physics we are bound;
can’t escape! Give up, don’t try.
Nothing ever really touches
no matter how the blood rushes.
Poem: Spring Scheming
I have been experimenting with haiku and sonnets. I have written sonnets based on haiku and haiku based on sonnets. I should probably make a note about which is which. I will eventually publish all of them (or all that are worthwhile, anyway), but of course, I can’t wait for that. Here’s my most recent attempt.
winter’s mossy wrap
cannot hold back spring blossoms
riotous reform
Spring Scheming
Winter’s moss won’t hold me back!
No, in spring I’ll bloom anyway.
When the night is less black
and winds make new leaves sway.
Patchy growths won’t take me over.
When the sun shines yellow and warm
and bees buzz among the clover,
our schemes begin to take form.
You see my buds emerge today
and tomorrow they’ll only grow.
Moss can’t hurt me; I won’t decay.
Beauty is my power to bestow.
The world will soon be full of color;
just wait, we’re staging a takeover.
I Could Not Have Gone to College Without Federal Aid
When I graduated from high school (I think I was third in my class and my SAT scores always got an “ooh” of respect although I do not remember what they were), I already knew where I wanted to go to college. UNC-Chapel Hill received my “yes, please” in the return mail.
Problem was, I had no money, my parents (who had not had the opportunity to attend college) had never had a chance to save any, and I had little or no know-how on how to get money for college. A conversation with the financial aid office at UNC solved that problem. I soon had several low- or no-interest loans from the federal government and a couple of higher-interest loans from private institutions to tide me over for the full four years. My father also applied for and received a federal grant so he could help me.
This was my first real experience with the federal government, and I was very grateful. My country believed in me! My country was willing to invest money in me and the promise I had to be a contributing citizen. The belief of my country gave me the belief I needed in myself.
I now own my own business, having raised three children after working as a journalist and librarian. My student loans were paid off years ago, I pay taxes every year, and I’m happy to do it because of the opportunity my government gave me when I was in need.
This is how the American Dream should work, and I pray the U.S. government will not fail the students of now and the future. Believe in them.
Poem: It Is Okay to Hope
In case you need to hear this right now. Please don’t give up. Hope.
It Is Okay to Hope
By Michelle Garren-Flye
It is okay to hope in the middle of the night;
to whisper a prayer to the gods that be,
and believe they can make everything right.
You want to? That’s all right with me.
It is okay to try to find joy in your life,
to look for the positive, to feel happy.
Enjoy a sunset, forget all the strife.
Watch the moonrise and get a little sappy.
Refuse to live your life in fear!
Banish dismay, doubt, and despair!
Hope will help keep your eyes clear
even when all the world seems unfair.
Do what you need to find your own way;
just remember hope is always okay.
BREATHE: Michelle Garren-Flye 