National Poetry Month: Fortune Cookie Poetry 15, “It is better not to speak of things you do not understand”

Posted on April 15, 2024 by Michelle Garren-Flye

Haha! Finally a fortune I can work with! I both believe in this fortune…and don’t. Because while I try not to be a know-it-all and really don’t like those who are, I also think it’s possible someone may have something to say on something that they aren’t necessarily an expert on. Provided it’s a well-thought out opinion (and is regarded as opinion, not fact).

So, I took the viewpoint of an expert trying to hush up someone who’d like to have an opinion for this villanelle. And the villanelle form leant itself very well to this subject matter!

I hope you enjoy.

Photo and poem copyright 2024 Michelle Garren-Flye

It is better not to speak of things you do not understand.

Greek to You
By Michelle Garren-Flye

Quiet now please, it is best not to speak
about these things you cannot understand;
I know you know to you this is all Greek,

so don’t talk about it, just remain meek,
and let those who do know get it in hand.
Quiet now please, it is best not to speak!

Nope, don’t even utter a single squeak!
Vital knowledge is too much to demand.
I know you know to you this is all Greek.

Okay, okay, come on and take a peek…
you might just as well know what we have planned,
but quiet please, it is best not to speak.

You know we will not stand for your critique.
Our plan, as you can see, is much too grand.
I know you know to you this is all Greek.

Like a little hen, don’t open your beak;
much better brains than yours are in command.
Quiet now, please, it is best not to speak.
You know I know to you this is all Greek.

National Poetry Month: Fortune Cookie Poetry 14, “Make serious decisions in the last few days of the month”

Posted on April 14, 2024 by Michelle Garren-Flye

Welcome to Haiku Sunday! No matter what the fortune is, I must turn it into a haiku.

Not to downplay the difficulty of this one, but do you know the one famous haiku where the last line is “refrigerator”? Well, I sort of did that with this one because the first word that popped into my head was a five-syllable word. Procrastination.

The other two lines weren’t that easy, but I’m fairly happy with the result.

Hope you enjoy!

Make serious decisions in the last few days of the month.

Seriously
By Michelle Garren-Flye

opportune timing
is everything this month
procrastination

National Poetry Month: Fortune Cookie Poetry 11, “Love yourself first and everything falls into line.”

Posted on April 11, 2024 by Michelle Garren-Flye

Again, I drew a blank on this one. I felt a little bit targeted, actually, as I struggle every single day with this issue. Too many yesterdays behind me, too many tomorrows ahead. My lines are all crooked.

So this was a good exercise for me. Because my complaints are really fairly small and temporary.

I won’t lie, it started out as a sonnet, but the rhyme scheme didn’t work out, so I ended up making it a four-stanza quatrain poem.

Hope you enjoy!

Love yourself first and everything falls into line.

Loving Life
By Michelle Garren-Flye

The wild, windy walk uncurled your hair,
but don’t cry about life not being fair.
Over the weekend you gained a pound,
but that’s no reason to come unwound.

You had to skip dance class to mow the lawn,
but it’s no use being sad or withdrawn.
So what if your accountant says you may owe tax?
Sometimes things fall through cracks.

After all, the walk was fun to take,
And that pound came from a birthday cake.
Your lawn looks green in today’s rain,
and taxes were once paid in grain.

To be honest, you’re really not that bad!
Loving life you do well, I might add.
You’re doing good, everyone’s fine;
all your ducks are in a line.

National Poetry Month: Fortune Cookie Poetry 10, “Laughter shall fuel your spirit’s engine”

Posted on April 10, 2024 by Michelle Garren-Flye

As soon as I read today’s fortune, I remembered one particular night. You see, I love to laugh, but sometimes I think I’ve forgotten how. Then I have a moment when laughter lights up my heart again. I know this fortune is true, but I don’t always know how to make it true for myself.

Maybe that’s how we all are, to a certain extent. Surviving day to day.

I can say that nine times out of ten, when I find myself in that warm light of laughter, it’s with my kids, the human beings I love most in this world. And that’s what this poem is about.

I chose to write it in haibun format, which was invented by Matsuo Basho, the master of the haiku. A haibun is a prose poem and a haiku smashed together. I’ve attempted them before. I think this one works, to a certain extent.

I hope you enjoy it, anyway!

laughter shall fuel your spirit’s engine
By Michelle Garren-Flye

They dragged you out, these children who have grown into friends. You’re usually bathed and in bed by now. Tomorrows are always full. You have to be ready. But they want to have fun. They want you to have fun, but fun is not something you practice. There are too many tomorrows ahead, too many yesterdays behind. 

The golf place is full, but you have a reservation. They serve beer, so you have some, hoppy smells tickling your nose hairs. The lights are bright, and there is a heater nearby so even though you’re outside in January and there will be snow tomorrow, you take off your coat. Frustration mounts with every golf swing, until your oldest son misses the ball entirely and yells, “Fun!”

And there it is, bubbling around you, the energy needed to fuel your spirit, as first you and then your children who are now adults and friends—your yesterdays and your tomorrows—shout it together, hurl it into the night air with the white golf balls hailing onto the astroturf:

giggling bubbles
burble in your life spirit
laughter is your peace

National Poetry Month: Fortune Cookie Poetry 9, “Make Big Plans”

Posted on April 9, 2024 by Michelle Garren-Flye

Finally, a fortune that makes a good title, too! And definitely one I enjoyed. Just yesterday I was thinking about all the things I want to do, places I want to go. And I was making some big plans. When I retire, I’m going to do as many of them as I can.

In the meantime, I had fun with this fortune. I think this poem spells out what I always imagined my retired life would be like. So here we go!

Make Big Plans
By Michelle Garren-Flye

Let’s make big plans for someday.
Together we’ll travel round the world 
and stop where we want to play
then spend each night curled

by a fireplace in some remote cabin
on top of a mountain, who knows where?
We just have to make it happen
so we can breathe in all that fresh air

out on the sea, sailing in a big ship
from country to country, shore to shore.
Don’t doubt my ability to make this trip
real—reality really doesn’t matter anymore.

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.

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.