When I set out to write love poetry, I knew I’d have to find a different angle for it. I am still working on that, and I may have taken it to the extreme with this one. Anyway, Happy Valentine’s Day!
Poem and illustration copyright 2023 Michelle Garren-Flye
I haven’t spent a great deal of time worrying about the release of Becoming Magic today, in spite of a glitch at Amazon that has prevented the Kindle version from being available. Oh well, that’s life.
No, instead, I’ve been participating in a Facebook moon photography “contest” hosted by a fellow author, Robert Beatty, author of the fantastic Serafina series. I love taking pictures of the moon, so I chimed in with my Juneau Moon, seen at the left.
Photography got me thinking about some of my other favorite things to photograph. My very favorite thing of all to photograph (besides my kids) are flowers. So, since I happen to have some very pretty roses sitting on my kitchen counter, I snapped a pic of one of those and posted it on Facebook. Because, hey, I’m a romance author, right? Red roses are my thing. I’m calling this one Kitchen Rose. (If you look hard at the bottom right corner, you can see breakfast.)
And of course, no day would be quite complete without taking a picture of my cat. Her name is Calliope, who was the muse of poetry. She posed quite prettily for me with my daughter’s sneakers, but you can tell my floor needs sweeping!
What’s your favorite thing to photograph? Do you have a favorite photo on your phone right now? Would you like to win a print copy of Becoming Magic? Visit my Facebook page here: Michelle Garren Flye, author and post your favorite picture of the moon, a pretty flower or your pet. I’ll choose my favorite and send you a print copy of Becoming Magic.
I often try to make sense of world events and reconcile them with a belief in a higher power with little actual success. For the past month the news has been reporting about the super blue blood moon as if it were either apocalyptic or the answer to all our prayers. I wasn’t fooled. I’ve been taken by that sort of thing before. It’s just a moon in the end.
But it made me think, and when I think, I often write. And so in honor of yesterday’s super blue blood (on the West coast) moon, and dedicated to anyone who’s ever wished on the moon with my sympathy:
Super Moon and Street Lamp
He Asked the Moon
By Michelle Garren Flye
How do you judge us?
He asked the moon.
Hanging in the black sky, cold and alone…
From your vantage you see all—
You watch and you judge.
Why don’t you do something?
He implored the moon.
The wars, the famine, killing and fear…
The deaths of the innocents—
Your gaze never wavers.
Who are you, anyway?
He cried at the moon.
Your silence is deafening, your light so cold.
Your powers are limitless—
You control the sea’s dance!
What would you have me do?
Replied the moon at long last.
Your world is foolish, but it’s not my affair.
You think it’s my choice to watch
Your self-obliteration?
Look within for help, man,
Advised the moon with indifference.
Have you no fellows who feel as you do?
Appeal to them for relief—
I was never meant to care.
Please keep in mind that these poems are written very much off-the-cuff, usually when I sit down at the computer to update this blog. So they’re very rough. Some of them aren’t very good. Some of them I’m not sure about. Maybe some of them will speak to some of you, maybe others won’t appeal to anyone. It’s a fun thing to try, though, writing a poem a day. I highly recommend it.
Poem 12
Pink Moon
By Michelle Garren Flye
When the moon turned pink,
The flowers bloomed and you said you loved me.
But there’s no such thing as a pink moon
And that makes love extraordinary.
Moonlight doesn’t change colors.
Nature is what makes the flowers bloom.
Everyone knows the moon is green
…Except when it’s blue.
BREATHE: Michelle Garren-Flye 