primrose | BREATHE: Michelle Garren-Flye

So I may have missed my mark by a few hundred years. I believe I belonged in the time of romantic poets. Shelley, Byron. Keats, Dickinson… Today’s successful poets write about social issues in a way I wish I could write. I’ve tried. It mostly (a few exceptions) ends up sounding trite.

But writing love poetry, romance, looking at the moon—that’s my jam, man. lol. (what decade am I actually living in?)

I wrote this little poem yesterday. It was much less good until I wrote it today. Now it’s much gooder. To give you an idea, this is the original ending:

I seek you when I fall asleep at night

but this poem will need a good rewrite.

I was definitely right about that. So here’s another one for my collection of love poetry that is yet to come:

Missing You

By Michelle Garren-Flye

I miss you when I look at the moon

and know you won’t be back soon.

I’ve made loneliness into an art

to which I have devoted my heart.

On the radio, I may hear a tune—

against your charm, I am not immune.

Oh, can’t you rescue me from this plight,

steal me away from all anger and fright?

This love is most inopportune,

painfully made and roughly hewn.

It pokes holes in my soul, leaves me

with a wish I wish most wantonly.

Yesterday’s primrose. Photo and poem copyright 2023 Michelle Garren-Flye

Today, we have a new poem.

But before we get to that, I saw a few of you joined my live yesterday. It was on my Instagram. It was sideways. Lol. My daughter reassured me that people could turn their phones if they wanted to watch it, so I did save it to my Instagram, so you can go check it out if you want. I was nervous. It was honest-to-god my first-ever live. I’ve posted videos before, but I can stop and redo those if I mess up or whatever. This one’s got me fumbling for words and misreading and everything. All in five minutes! What entertainment.

Anyway, I haven’t gotten any actual questions about poetry to answer yet, so I probably won’t do another live until next Sunday unless something comes up before that I think would make more sense to answer live than here on my blog.

And now, a poem! I actually wrote a poem I kind of like! This morning!

(I’m a bit excited.)

It’s about a primrose.

No, really. A primrose. I took a picture of a Beach Evening Primrose this morning and it turned out super good. Plus, a friend sent me a poetry prompt last night from another poet/writing coach who suggested that we find something in nature that inspires us and write a poem about it. I intend to post this picture with the poem on Instagram and tag her to see what she thinks, hopefully. Her name is Ann Kroeker. She wrote a really nice poem about a pinecone. You should look her up.