garden | BREATHE: Michelle Garren-Flye

11 a.m. Trying to get started a little early today. Saturdays are usually busy at the store, and I have absolutely no idea what to write. I did take some pretty pictures this morning.

I think I’ll write about the pink rose. It’s the first perfect rose I’ve seen this spring. Others have been half bloomed or stunted by the cold snaps we’ve had. This one had perfect timing. Let’s try a villanelle.

Spring arrives with green glows
flowers, trees, insects abound
and you, finally, a perfect rose.

Pay no mind when wind blows
frost is gone till winter rolls round
spring has arrived with green glows.

and you, finally, a perfect rose

spring arrives with green glows

and you, finally, a perfect rose


spring arrives with green glows

and you, finally, a perfect rose

11:12 a.m. Pausing a moment here because I had to stop anyway to wait on someone at the store. It’s empty again, but I thought I’d explain how I write villanelle. It has a rhyming pattern where you use the same first and third lines. I usually end up altering those lines a bit. (You can tell I did at the end of the second verse above.) But to keep myself on track, I lay the sort of cornerstones before I write. Those are the last lines of each verse.

11:17 a.m. Back to it!

Spring arrives with green glows
flowers, trees, insects abound
and you, finally, a perfect rose.

Pay no mind when wind blows
frost is gone till winter rolls round
spring has arrived with green glows.

Sun is needed, everyone knows
to make violets and clover abound—
and you, finally, a perfect rose

There's no way to express in prose
how it feels when winter loses ground
and spring arrives with green glows

when everything thaws that cold froze
and pinks, reds, yellows arrive to astound
with you, finally, a perfect rose

When spring arrives with green glows
take a moment to rest and look around
Nature puts on her finest clothes
and dons, finally, a perfect rose

11:30 a.m. Finished, but looking back over it, I see a repeated rhyme (one that shouldn’t be repeated!). Lots of people in the store, but I’m going to get started on the rewrite now./

A Perfect Rose
by Michelle Garren-Flye

Spring arrives with green glows
flowers, trees, insects abound—
and you, finally, a perfect rose.

Pay no mind when the wind blows!
Frost is gone till winter rolls round.
Spring has arrived with green glows.

Sun is needed, everyone knows,
to warm the bluebird's song into sound
and summon you, my perfect rose.

There's no way to express in prose
how it feels when winter loses ground
and spring arrives with green glows,

when everything thaws that cold froze,
and pinks, reds, yellows arrive to astound
and give us at last a perfect rose.

When spring arrives with green glows
take a moment to rest and look around
as Nature puts on her finest clothes
and dons, finally, a perfect rose.