Happy National Poetry Month: Poem 14

Posted on April 14, 2026 by Michelle Garren-Flye

10:40 a.m. One of the past years (can’t remember which) I wrote fortune cookie poetry. I cracked open a fortune cookie every morning and wrote a poem based on the fortune inside. Thought I’d try that live. Here goes:

Listen to the wisdom of the old
their words and memories may bore
but somewhere in them there is gold
that makes listening worth the chore

10:53 a.m. Took a short break to make a cup of coffee. Here we go. Again.

Believe inside each person of age
their real self still in their prime
resides within what might be a cage
stuck there counting minutes of time

11:11 a.m. make a wish.

11:12 a.m. I’m having a hard time not being trite with this one. Sonnet may not have been the best choice. Oh well, I’m committed now.

When bodies grow old and mind cobwebs
and life has entered its reprise
the tide that once crashed now ebbs
thoughts and wisdom don't come with ease

11:18 a.m. That one was not easy.

Still pay attention to the old man on the street
Because as we know, history is doomed to repeat

11:20 a.m. That’s not awful. Let’s see what it looks like all put together.

11:35 a.m. Okay, now let’s see what it all looks like with punctuation and rewrites. (Sorry, had a couple of interruptions.

Reprise
by Michelle Garren-Flye

When bodies grow old and mind cobwebs
and life has entered its reprise,
the tide that once crashed now ebbs
and wisdom doesn't come with ease.

Yet, listen to the wisdom of the old;
their words and memories may bore,
but somewhere in them there is gold
that makes the hearing worth the chore.

Believe inside each person of age
their real self still in their prime
resides within the fleshy cage
created by the passage of Time.

Pay heed to the old man on the street!
As we know, history is doomed to repeat.

11:45 a.m. I like the rewrite much better. I had a hard time with the title, though.

Photo and poem copyright 2026 Michelle Garren-Flye

Happy National Poetry Month: Poem 11

Posted on April 11, 2026 by Michelle Garren-Flye

10:34 a.m. I anticipate many interruptions today, so I’m going to get right to it. I saw, of all things, a Disney commercial today. It talked about playing. I also saw a VW bus parked in my neighbor’s carport. Intrigued, I stopped to talk to him about it. He said something about going to see a hippie band in it.

My brain combined the two things.

Sometimes you gotta stop to play
take a ride in a van to see a hippie band
splash in the puddles, act a little cray

the world's troubles on you may weigh
nothing may go as you had planned
so sometimes you gotta stop to play

you deserve to go on a break today
take a long walk along a beach of white sand
splash in the puddles, act a little cray

your life can sometimes go astray
or maybe you just imagined it more grand
sometimes you gotta stop to play

dress up is fun, or when the day is gray
play tag or castles, then go out and
splash in the puddles, act a little cray

games aren't just for kids, I say
when troubles make it hard to stand
that's when you gotta stop to play
splash in the puddles, act a little cray

11:11 a.m. make a wish.

11:12 a.m. It’s another villanelle. They’re both harder and easier than you might think. I’ve got to go over this one now. Make sure it’s got the right rhythm and rhyme.

Cray Play
by Michelle Garren-Flye

Sometimes you gotta stop to play:
take a ride in a van to see a hippie band,
splash in the puddles, act a little cray.

The world's troubles on you will weigh;
nothing may go as you had planned,
so sometimes you gotta stop to play.

You deserve to go on a break today!
Take a long walk along a beach of white sand,
splash in the puddles, act a little cray.

Your life can sometimes go astray—
or maybe you just imagined it more grand?
Maybe you ought to stop to play.

Dress up is fun, or when the day is gray
play tag or castles, then go out and
splash in the puddles, act a little cray.

Games aren't just for kids, I say!
When troubles make it hard to stand,
that's when you gotta stop to play,
splash in the puddles, act a little cray.

11:26 a.m. Done. What do you think?

Happy National Poetry Month: Poem 7

Posted on April 7, 2026 by Michelle Garren-Flye

10:18 a.m. Today I should be at work, but I’m at home because this is where I need to be. You see, on Easter Sunday, I went downstairs into our basement and discovered about six inches of water. Fun stuff.

Of course, it happened on Easter. National holiday and all that jazz. Fortunately I have a plumber who doesn’t mind me texting him, and so I did, but I added, please don’t come today. (I knew the price would be astronomical.) I then went downstairs and whacked my sump pump with a broomstick and it kicked on and started working.

Seriously when does that happen?

Anyway, long story short, the plumber is here today, and it’s not going to cost me my food budget for the month, and so I’m making this corner of my world a little better.

But what am I going to write about?

Basements in Eastern North Carolina? Creepy and not the best choice at all.

Plumbers who come to your rescue? Love them, but not poetic.

Which leaves me with the irises that are growing outside my house.

Queens of flowers.

They guard secrets.

This is feeling poetic.

10:26 a.m.

10:35 a.m. Okay, I may have to come back to this. My brain just isn’t doing the poetic thing right now. I’m going to go read over some of my old poems and see if I can get any fresh ideas.

12:39 p.m. That happens sometimes. Just a bit of difficulty focusing with other stuff going on. I’m not writing about Queen Iris, I don’t think. But I’m back in my bookstore now, plumbing has been settled for the moment. I’m counting blessings.

Ode to the Book I Just Sold
by Michelle Garren-Flye

It's not always easy, the bookseller life—
sometimes you want to stop a sale.
I want to keep that one, your soul will wail
as the last touch cuts your heart like a knife.

But letting go is what it's about
so little book I love, go out into the world!
Come back read, with pages bent and curled;
spread the knowledge readers can't do without.

Better, isn't it, than sitting on a shelf all day?
At least maybe make it to a reader's nightstand
where some night she'll pick you up, unplanned,
and get sucked into the worlds you display.

1:20 p.m. Maybe not the best poem I’ve written, but not horrible. I’m running late so I’m not going to rewrite now.

Happy National Poetry Month: Poem 6

Posted on April 6, 2026 by Michelle Garren-Flye

10:50 a.m. I’ve been thinking a lot about my corner of the world. My concept is that if everyone concentrated on making their corner of the world, no matter how big or small, a better place, the entire world would follow.

I know how lucky I am in my corner of the world. I have a beautiful home (currently with some plumbing issues, but you know…), and I have my store. I’ve worked very hard to make both warm and happy and beautiful.

Anyway, I think I’m going to use this concept for my next poetry book. And in that vein, today I want to write a poem about my corner of the world.

11 a.m.

If my corner of the world is dark
I find a lamp to give it light
if the walls are white and stark
I add a painting to save its plight

Silence is sometimes what I need
but I welcome a cat's sweet purr
and musical ditties that bleed
into nights when insects chirr

Soft grass outside, carpets within
greet tired feet after a long day
pillows for heads laid down in chagrin
I'm finally done with this long fray.

Make your corner of the world safe and true
to what you wish to see in the larger view.

11:11 make a wish.

11:12 Moving on. Now for a rewrite:

My Corner of the World
by Michelle Garren-Flye

If my corner of the world is dark
I find a lamp to give it light.
If the walls are white and stark
I add a painting to make it right.

Silence is sometimes what I need,
but I welcome a cat's sweet purr
and musical ditties that bleed
into nights when insects chirr.

Soft grass outside, carpets within,
greet tired feet after a long day.
Pillows for heads laid down in chagrin—
and finally done with the long fray.

Make your corner of the world safe and true
to what you wish to see in the larger view.

11:16 a.m. Okay! See you tomorrow!

Happy National Poetry Month: Poem 2

Posted on April 2, 2026 by Michelle Garren-Flye

10:47 a.m. Good morning! Happy Day 2 of National Poetry Month. And so we begin our second live poem.

As I was getting the store opened and thinking about what to write about today, this line came to me.

April is a mystical month.

There aren’t many rhymes for “month”, and I do like to rhyme, regardless of what type of poetry I’m writing, so I changed it.

April is a mystical time.

Lots of rhymes for time. Rhyme, for one. So here goes, wish me luck. It might be a sonnet?

April is a mystical time
pause and listen to its heartbeat
the days are warm and almost kind
but nighttime is still a cheat

10:55 a.m. This is harder than I remember lol.

And I had to help some customers.

Full moon wends through trees to light
a meadow noisy with full-throated song
and new life joins the old in the night
dancing round a bonfire can't be wrong

11:11 a.m. make a wish!

11:12 a.m. back to work.

Make a wish on the waning moon
that the tides will change for the better
April is here but it ends oh so soon
the magic will change with the weather

11:15 a.m. I’ve found my direction now, so that one was easier. One sec. Derby’s meowing and I need to check on him.

11:18 a.m. Okay, going back to read over what I’ve written so I know what to do for the final couplet. (Derby was fine. Just wanted pets.)

The wish you make may float away to the past,
but then, magic was never meant to last.

11:20 a.m. That’s it! Not the best sonnet ever, but it’s passable. Gonna give it a quick sponge bath, and post the rewritten version here:

April 2
by Michelle Garren-Flye

April is a mystical time...
pause and listen to its heartbeat.
The days are warm and almost kind
but the night is still winter's cheat.

Full moon wends through trees to light
a meadow noisy with full-throated song,
and new life joins old in the night—
dancing round a bonfire can't be wrong!

Make a wish on the waning moon
that the tides will change for the better.
April is here but it ends—oh so soon!
The magic will change with the weather.

The wish you make may float away to the past,
but then, magic was never meant to last.

11:24 a.m. And so it is done.

I made another something: Laws of Lightning will be out soon!

Posted on January 21, 2026 by Michelle Garren-Flye

My last original romance novel was published in 2020. I believe it was at the height of Covid, when we all thought the world was going to end. I remember people caught on cruise ships and getting stuck because of Covid cases being detected onboard. And I bravely published a romance that took place on board a cruise ship.

Ah, those were the days.

No fear this time, though. Covid has been interwoven into our society (along with some other unpleasant things). So for my comeback, my first novel in nearly SIX YEARS, I chose to write a total escape romantasy set in 1700s England and featuring Greek gods. Yep. It’s like if Jane Austen met the crazy-ass gods of mythology.

Here’s the summary:

In a world where magic and religion are outlawed, the fates of a natural mage and a wandering god collide.

Callie has hidden her powers all her life while working as a kitchen maid for the St. Clair family—until one night when she is discovered in the woods by Samir, a servant of the Muses. Drawn to the beauty of her magic, Samir recruits his friend Dionysus to help him discover more about the young woman with extraordinary power.

Together, they embark on a search for the lost pithos of Pandora. The journey tests their love, expands their beliefs, and leads them on a wild ride from the excesses of London’s “season” to the mysterious depths of the Oracle of Delphi.

Can the new love Samir and Callie have discovered survive the demands of London society and the quirks of the gods of Olympus?

And here’s the final cover:

Laws of Lightning will be released on February 28, 2026. I’ll be posting more about it between now and then. I’ve ordered my preview copy of it, just to make sure it really is going to look as good as I think it will when it comes out. Just FYI, although it’s a romantasy, I doubt this one would get even 3 spicy peppers on today’s spicy scale. Still, I’m old-fashioned and recommending it for 18+ readers. So approach with caution.

Poem: The Poet Wins

Posted on January 8, 2026 by Michelle Garren-Flye

This post is for a fellow poet, Renee Nicole Good, who was killed by ICE this week. Her death was senseless, brutal, and unjustifiable.

It was murder, and it was sanctioned by our government.

I’ll be honest, when I first heard about it, I thought it was just another one of the insane things that happen in our crazy-ass world. Our government is blowing up fishing boats and kidnapping presidents of other countries, after all. They’re locking up immigrant children in juvenile detention facilities known for child abuse. Americans are being encouraged to eat red meat, drink alcohol, skip immunizations…and don’t worry about not being able to afford health insurance. Our president is barely conscious, and those are his good moments. And there’s the Epstein files, which are undeniably damning to the bastard.

So, what’s one more dead 37-year-old mother of three in Minneapolis?

Except…shit. She was shot by ICE, she was a U.S. Citizen…and she was a poet and writer.

“Don’t kill the poets,” says the old Irish proverb. So writers have enjoyed this “immunity” for centuries, running around battlefields with press passes stuck in fedoras and “REPORTER” emblazoned on bulletproof vests. And yet, this is no proof against a bullet.

Reporters, scholars, historians, writers, poets are the first to be sought out by a would-be suppressive government. But in the end, there is another proverb that has proven truer than the first.

“The pen is mightier than the sword.”

The Poet Wins
By Michelle Garren-Flye

This is how it begins:
killing poets in the street.
Let’s see who wins.

Grow some thicker skins,
don’t be indiscreet:
that’s how it begins.

They’re watching your sins:
Big Brother brings the heat…
But wait! Who wins?

No way out of these ins,
just learn to keep the beat
cause this is how it begins.

Shall we all become shut-ins?
Bend the knee, become obsolete
and let Him think He wins?

No, we’ll stand up against the spins.
Face death, oh, it’s bittersweet!
So this is how it begins…
But in the end, the Poet wins.

Celebrating 50,000 words

Posted on March 7, 2025 by Michelle Garren-Flye

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!

Cover design by Michelle Garren-Flye Copyright 2025

Set in 18^th 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.

I’m a Bookmaker

Posted on December 8, 2023 by Michelle Garren-Flye

I often get questions about getting published. My answer?

I have no clue. I’m definitely not an expert.

But you’ve been published. Look at all those books. And you publish a literary magazine.

And I do. And I admit I’m a little surprised when I look at my backlist. Because, yes. I have a lot of published books. And I’ve learned a lot about how to publish them. I know how to format a manuscript, how to upload it to Amazon and Smashwords, I’m usually able to edit my own stuff, and I’m slowly learning the ins and outs of designing my own cover and illustrating my books when necessary.

I try, very hard, to explain that my path to being published isn’t really going to work for everyone. I’m self-taught, but I know my limits and I know when I need to consult an expert. I’ve hired developmental editors, for example, because I know that’s not my field of expertise. I often hire someone to design covers for me, or at least I used to, back when I wrote novels. If I ever write another one, chances are I’ll hire someone for that, too.

With all that said, I have one bit of advice for new writers who want to self-publish. Don’t go to a self-publishing publisher. Do as much as you can yourself. And take an a la carte approach to the rest. Chances are very good if you go to a publisher who charges you to publish your book, you’ll be overcharged and your book will not be a quality product. You’ll make less on royalties from your book because the publisher will take a cut, and you’ll be overcharged for author copies of your book, making it difficult to sell them yourself and make a profit. (I know books are overpriced, but nobody really wants to pay $20-plus for a paperback book.)

And so…I’ve finally broken down and put all my knowledge into a short (about four and a half minutes) presentation. I may eventually start giving this presentation in person, but I’m not a great public speaker except when it comes to reading my poetry (and so far nobody’s wanted to pay to hear that). Plus, as I said, I don’t really consider myself an expert.

But I am a bookmaker.

Sum total of my knowledge about bookmaking, also available here: https://michellegflye.com/self-publishing-from-a-bookmakers-pov/

Poetry Diaries: It’s happening!

Posted on September 22, 2022 by Michelle Garren-Flye

Everyone who knows me as a poet knows my feelings about poetry being nonfiction. Poetry is a much more personal form of writing (to me) than novels or short stories. I can write about anything in a novel or short story. I once wrote a flash fiction about a woman who’d lost both legs in an accident. I used to write horror. And yes, romance. All fiction.

Nothing personal.

Poetry, on the other hand, is almost never fiction to me. I can’t really put myself in someone else’s shoes when I write poetry. The few times I have, it’s because I’m able to empathize for one reason or another. And I almost never think those poems are as good as my others.

So poetry is very personal. It’s my thoughts and feelings. And when I put together a poetry book, it’s almost like a diary. I tend to share a bit about what and why I wrote different poems. Like a diary.

I noticed this trend in my work after Hypercreativity. Both Hypercreativity and 100 Warm Days of Haiku fit this concept I had for poetry diaries. So I decided to make them part of a series. The Poetry Diaries was born. The third in this series is coming soon. Well, hopefully. I’m hoping it will be fifty villanelle, but I haven’t even hit forty yet and may stop there, honestly. I’ve discovered a new type of poetry I really want to try. In the meantime, however, I did design the cover to the next poetry diary. And it’s pretty good!