National Poetry Month: Fortune Cookie Poetry 8, “Make sure to laugh everyday…it’s good for your health”

Posted on April 8, 2024 by Michelle Garren-Flye

ETA: It was brought to my attention that I neglected to attach the poem…it’s here now. Sorry about that!

Laughing is one of my favorite things to do. It’s good exercise, right? It’s also hard to make yourself do when you don’t feel it. In fact, I think making yourself cry is probably easier than making yourself laugh.

So, this fortune is right up there with “You’re more attractive when you smile” for me. Yeah, it’d be great to laugh everyday, but life sometimes doesn’t allow for that.

With that said, maybe my sonnet will sense.

Photo and poem copyright 2024 Michelle Garren-Flye

Make sure to laugh everyday…it’s good for your health.

Lifestyle Choices
By Michelle Garren-Flye

Why not just laugh and sing and play all day?
It’s good for your health, your outlook, and life.
Take a moment, is all I want to say,
for merriment and to avoid the strife.

Love and life are difficult? Oh come on!
 I’m sure you can find a reason to laugh…
Just find the funny stuff on which to fawn—
wait, I’ll find it myself on your behalf.

Look, here’s a puppy playing on a meme,
a cat in a bag, a man falling down.
There is plenty more along the same theme!
Use stuff like this to wipe away your frown.

A giggle or two is all that it takes.
Laughter costs nothing, and fixes heartaches.

National Poetry Month: Fortune Cookie Poetry 7, “It is much more difficult to judge oneself than to judge others”

Posted on April 7, 2024 by Michelle Garren-Flye

Welcome to Haiku Sunday! I’ve decided as an extra challenge to designate Sundays for haiku. No matter what the fortune, I must write a haiku inspired by it. Today’s was very difficult but I finally settled on my double-edged sword idea. The idea being that you’re likely to judge yourself either more or less harshly than you’d judge another person.

This is not my best haiku…and it even has a little joke of an extra syllable. Definitely not my best effort.

It is much more difficult to judge oneself than to judge others.

Double-edged Sword
By Michelle Garren-Flye

double-edged sword cuts
for and against self-judgment
you wilt ‘neath its edge…s

National Poetry Month: Fortune Cookie Poetry 6, “Negotiations move along smoothly. The outcome is favorable!”

Posted on April 6, 2024 by Michelle Garren-Flye

Another long one that threw me off. I’m actually not negotiating for anything in particular right now, so I started thinking about St. Peter and the Pearly Gates and how I could negotiate my way into heaven when that time comes. As I am very much a human with the usual foibles, I can see how it might be a difficult sell, but maybe this fortune is telling me it’ll come out okay.

Negotiations move along smoothly. The outcome is favorable!

A Conversation with St. Peter
By Michelle Garren-Flye

Yes, I killed spiders and the occasional mouse.
I couldn’t help it…they were in my house!
But think of the turtles I stopped to save
on the side of the road…the time I gave!

I guess you could say I drank too much wine
in my vain attempt to make myself feel fine.
The Sabbath was just a day to sleep late;
I didn’t really think I was making God wait.

I did give to charity—when I was asked.
Sometimes I volunteered without being tasked.
I’m not craven or evil or bad or corrupt,
so think about that as you measure me up.

National Poetry Month: Fortune Cookie Poetry 5: “It is hope, not despair, which makes successful revolutions”

Posted on April 5, 2024 by Michelle Garren-Flye

Today’s fortune is much too long to be a proper poem title, and maybe that’s why I had to give it a bit more thought. I know it refers to war, but my mind went to one of those merry-go-round things on a playground when I thought of revolutions. Nope, despair ain’t gonna turn one of those around. You definitely have to have hope backing you up, specifically hope that if you spend a bunch of energy getting it going good, you can then hop on and flop on your back and enjoy the ride.

So that’s where “Spin Cycle” came from. I wrote it in a sort of ghazal format. I’m still not sure I’m writing ghazals correctly. There are a lot of rules, and if I didn’t follow all of them, this poem is five couplets with a weird rhyme scheme.

Enjoy!

It is hope, not despair, which makes successful revolutions.

Spin Cycle
By Michelle Garren-Flye

I’ll spin around, right round, I won’t lose heart;
Spin right back to the start and never lose heart.

It’s hope that keeps me going, you see,
around in a circle, refusing to lose heart.

Despair drags me down, right to the ground,
but hope lifts me up, won’t let me lose heart.

Come spin with me on this cycle of life;
take my hands, remember, you can’t lose heart.

I’ll spin so fast, my feet will leave earth,
fly away, leave it all behind, my lost heart.

National Poetry Month: Fortune Cookie Poetry 4, “Love Makes the World Shine”

Posted on April 4, 2024 by Michelle Garren-Flye

Lol. I’m starting to think these freaking fortune cookies are trying to tell me something. And unfortunately for them, I’m not in the mood to write love poetry.

Still, when I got this one, “Love makes the world shine”, I thought, well hell. Maybe I should try a villanelle. (Yes, I rhyme in my thoughts.)

Villanelles were originally meant to be love songs. The form definitely lends itself to that. So I gave it a try. My original thought was an astronaut floating in space looking down at the bright sparkling lights of the cities and towns with affection. However, my brain immediately asked me why he was out there? And this is what I got.

It’s been a while since I wrote a villanelle, and this one was literally finished about five minutes before I wrote this. Still, it’s not awful.

Enjoy!

Love Lights Up the World
By Michelle Garren-Flye

Floating in space, feeling fine,
beauty below fills you with pride;
what makes the world shine?

Golden lights that’ll make you pine
for all you’ve ever been denied—
but you’re out in space, feeling fine.

Surely such beauty is benign
and should not be denied.
It’s what makes the world shine.

Mysterious glow sends a sign
that will not ever be denied
even out here in space, feeling fine.

The stars themselves must align
to serve as such a bright guide,
and that’s what makes the world shine.

Escape the tendrils meant to entwine—
be careful you do not collide!
Safe now, floating in space, feeling fine.

You just couldn’t be part of that design
no matter how much you have tried.
Love is what makes the world shine,
but you’re floating in space, feeling fine.

National Poetry Month: Fortune Cookie Poetry 3, “Love Conquers All”

Posted on April 3, 2024 by Michelle Garren-Flye

At first I thought I’d have a hard time with this one. And I did, a little. Do I really believe that love conquers all? At least, do I believe that now?

However, this is an appropriate day for me to get this one. Today is the birthday of my first child. He’s 24 today. I love him even more than I did the day he was born, and it’s like that with all my kids. I can have no regrets because I do not regret them.

My love for them has conquered the bitterness of everything else.

Love Conquers All
By Michelle Garren-Flye

Let go the bitter;
it does you no good in life,
and love conquers all.

Your heart will wither
if you cling to what will die,
but love conquers all.

Turn to what’s better—
see what will help you to fly?
Love will conquer all.

National Poetry Month: Fortune Cookie Poem 2, “Life to you is a Dashing, Bold Adventure”

Posted on April 2, 2024 by Michelle Garren-Flye

I have no idea what form this poem is, but I have a feeling I’m not the first to create one like this. It feels a little like Emily Dickinson to me. I used the fortune for the title, but that may change if I ever publish it.

Life to you is a dashing, bold adventure
By Michelle Garren-Flye

You’re too old for adventure everyday,
so why do you battle pirates in the bath
and sharks in the kitchen sink?
You’re just too old for this kind of play!
Add it up…do the math
then tell me what you think.

It might be too late for you, I guess.
Real love can’t match what’s in your mind—
so for me there is no chance…
But what if I join you on your quest?
Just maybe if I was one of your kind,
in your eyes, my person would enhance.

Who cares if we choose to escape the strife?
After all is said and done, it’s our life.

National Poetry Month: Fortune Cookie Poem 1, “Love is in the Air”

Posted on April 1, 2024 by Michelle Garren-Flye

Happy National Poetry Month to you! Welcome to April. My favorite month of the year.

Every April, I try to post a poem I write every single day. This year, I’m actually incredibly busy with my bookstore, my new editing business, and trying to get my first two novels republished by me instead of the traditional publisher that had them until recently. (See previous post.)

So, instead of trying to master a particular type of poetry (I’ve done haiku, sonnet, and villanelle in previous years), I’m opting for what I hope is a simpler route. I’m writing what I call fortune cookie poetry.

It’s pretty simple. Each day I’ll break open a fortune cookie, read the fortune, and write a poem based on it.

A little background about me and fortune cookies. A few years ago my life took a turn I had never anticipated. At the time it devastated me, and I became obsessed with wishing I could know what was coming at me before it actually hit me. Astrology, online Tarot and Magic 8 Balls (I recently got a real one for my birthday), hitting shuffle on my iPhone music after asking it a question…and fortune cookies.

Have any of these things helped? Probably not. Life is life and sometimes it smacks you around. Unpredictability is just what the world is, and no amount of crystal balls are going to help you see what’s around the bend…or, sometimes, right in front of you.

With that said, I still eat fortune cookies. And right now I have the sweet taste of one in my mouth and I got an even sweeter fortune. And I wrote a poem about it. It’s a sort of sonnet with a kind of cool rhyme scheme. 🙂 Hope you enjoy.

Love is in the Air
By Michelle Garren-Flye

Love is in the air, you say?
Well, that explains it all.
I’m not looking up today
so I guess I missed its call.

Don’t bother looking out for me.
I don’t think I believe anyway.
Love has no real allure, you see,
and on my nerves, it will fray.

Seductive whispers just won’t work
now that I’ve been set free.
I don’t want to sound like a jerk
but I don’t think love is my key.

So go ahead and float about!
Someone else will hear you out.

Another Branch of My Publishing Journey Begins with a Cover Reveal!

Posted on March 25, 2024 by Michelle Garren-Flye

In 2010 I received what felt like maybe good news… One of my novels had been accepted by a publisher, Lyrical Press. At that time, Lyrical Press was an independent e-pub only publisher. That meant my book would only be available as en ebook. Kindle. Nook. All the other hot items on everybody’s Christmas list.

I consulted friends who had had more luck than me. The consensus was, basically, “Congratulations. At least it’s not self-publishing!” (haha! The worm has turned on that one!)

Lyrical Press did a wonderful job with my book, helping me edit, format, and designing an outstanding cover I will always love. Probably the most of all my covers. Secrets of the Lotus became a real book on July 5, 2010. Shortly after that, Lyrical accepted another of my books, Winter Solstice, which they published in 2011. And a few years later, Lyrical Press became part of Kensington Press, giving me the ability to say two of my books were published by Kensington Press. Pretty cool.

Late last year, however, I realized I wanted to do more with my books. Having taken the self-publishing thing to an extreme, I now own a bookstore, and I want those books on the shelf with my others. I contacted Kensington and they reverted the rights to me. Unfortunately, these rights do not include the original covers, but I have become rather handy with designing covers myself so no worries.

I’ve learned a lot about self-publishing in the past fourteen years. I’m currently putting both books through my own editing and formatting process and hope to have them on the shelf, literally, by summer. I have redesigned the covers already, and I’m getting excited about reintroducing these two stories to you guys.

Congratulations! I’m self-publishing!

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Poem: Birthday Concert (because today is my birthday)

Posted on March 15, 2024 by Michelle Garren-Flye

I love celebrating my birthday in spring! I ran into a bird who evidently agrees with me. Enjoy the impromptu concert I managed to record and, hopefully, the poem it inspired.

Birthday Concert
By Michelle Garren-Flye

Pretty bird perched on the gray bough,
what brought you to sing your concert now?
Is it your first year witnessing spring’s return?
Or the sun in the sky that makes you burn?

You start with a wren’s warbling cheer,
then throw in a cardinal’s brag right here.
A single blue jay call evens your song out
before the oriole’s whistle brings it about.

Thank you, my friend, for the cheerful song,
but your longwindedness held me here too long,
and now I’m afraid I must hurry on my way!
But I promise I’ll carry your tunes with me all day.