Today is my birthday, so I wrote a poem. It’s still pretty rough, and it’s actually two poems since I’m still doing the sonnet-from-a-haiku thing. Anyway, here it is along with the photo I took that inspired it.
Misty morn in spring Sidewalk stretches steadily I’m caught in happy
Sidewalk Stroll on my birthday By Michelle Garren-Flye
Today, the day I turn fifty-something, I see the sidewalk stretch ahead, a true flower path on this day in spring, warmth after the winter we suffered.
I salute the sun, bathe in the breeze, meander about in midnight moonlight; happy to live for a moment at ease with nothing to mourn, no one to fight.
Grateful for all that gives my life spice because living too easy just makes you fat. For true happiness, you must pay a price and sometimes it will knock you down flat.
Today, I know I’ll follow my sidewalk to the end; I’ll round every corner, never hesitate at a bend.
Photo and poem copyright 2025 Michelle Garren-Flye
I have been experimenting with haiku and sonnets. I have written sonnets based on haiku and haiku based on sonnets. I should probably make a note about which is which. I will eventually publish all of them (or all that are worthwhile, anyway), but of course, I can’t wait for that. Here’s my most recent attempt.
winter’s mossy wrap cannot hold back spring blossoms riotous reform
Spring Scheming
Winter’s moss won’t hold me back! No, in spring I’ll bloom anyway. When the night is less black and winds make new leaves sway.
Patchy growths won’t take me over. When the sun shines yellow and warm and bees buzz among the clover, our schemes begin to take form.
You see my buds emerge today and tomorrow they’ll only grow. Moss can’t hurt me; I won’t decay. Beauty is my power to bestow.
The world will soon be full of color; just wait, we’re staging a takeover.
Photo and poem copyright 2025 Michelle Garren-Flye
Today I decided to try a different kind of sonnet. I’ve always been fond of Shakespearean sonnets, but today I opted for a Petrarchan sonnet. I’m not certain I’ve mastered it, although I do have two to share. The rhyme scheme is easy enough to follow (I used ABBA ABBA CDE CDE in the first one, ABBA ABBA CDC CDC in the second.) It’s the theme that somewhat escapes me.
The first was inspired by the teachers of the field trip I just got back from. Petrarchan sonnets are supposed to express admiration for someone or something. I can think of no one more worthy of admiration than three teachers who are brave enough to take 170-some kids on a three-day field trip in which they bring back three trophies and all the kids they left with. That’s well-planned success!
The second is a little more amorphous thematically. I just went for the “I’m in love and I’ll do anything for you” theme. Still, as is the case most of the time, the second one seems a little better. A little tighter, maybe?
I plan to play with this form more.
Photo and poems copyright 2024 Michelle Garren-Flye
Success is a planned event.
To the Teachers By Michelle Garren-Flye
I watch with admiration and joy as you lay out the problem before us in a manner that makes me curious about the method you will employ, the way you will destroy what would otherwise cause a fuss but you dispense with it and thus success becomes our ploy.
To you I must confess my admiration grows as I watch you at work; I know you’ll make a success for your inspiration only grows and duties you do not shirk.
Star Hunting By Michelle Garren-Flye
I’m out to catch a star for you to place in your eye. I’ll be back by and by though I may travel far. Does this sound bizarre and do you wonder why I can’t just leave things as they are? It’s all because I love deep and hold my passion within. It’s worth a loss of sleep even if on the way I weep. If I plan I know I’ll win and your heart safe I will keep.
People think I’m crazy when I say this is my favorite day of the year. But it is. It’s the day I feel the most hope for the future.
Today. The darkest day of the year.
Want to know why?
Because every day after this one gets brighter.
In honor of the darkest, most hopeful day, I’m doing a “live poetry writing”. If you haven’t joined me for one of those, it’s sometimes interesting since I’m working at my bookstore and am often interrupted.
(At 11:16 a.m. I’m already interrupted by customers. How dare they? Just kidding!)
Winter Solstice
By Michelle Garren-Flye
(11:20 a.m. debating about form versus free verse…really should’ve thought about this ahead of time!)
What makes the darkest day of the year so bright?
When the sun leaves early, why do I still hope?
I refuse the fear the end of day, the coming of night
With the long darkness, I know I can cope.
(11:23 a.m. I’m thinking sonnet, then. I do love sonnets.)
Daylight may not last as long while the night grows
and flowers cannot emerge in the absence of sun
but even now, I sense the spread of nighttime slows
and the approach of dawn will soon come.
(11:29 a.m. I know. Sun and come don’t really rhyme…)
In my bed, I wait to hear the first bird’s sweet whistle
(11:38 a.m. Sorry, I was off trying to find a book for someone. Back now.)
in the dark and the cold, with my head on my pillow.
and then it comes, like a message of dismissal
to the cold of yesterday, a welcome to tomorrow.
(11:45 a.m. I did stop in the middle of those last few lines to check out a customer. Not doing badly on time, considering…)
I jump from my bed, ready again for employ.
This day and the next I feel will bring joy.
(11:49 a.m. I wrote this couplet to end the sonnet thinking I wanted to write about joy, but as I wrote the last line, I thought maybe I should concentrate on faith instead. So, I’m working on an alternate.)
I jump from my bed, but wonder about my haste,
I pause to think but I know: it’s all about faith.
11:54 a.m. I’m done. This was fun and I will most likely polish this one up some. No idea what I might use it for, but it’ll go into a folder on my computer, anyway. Thanks for joining me! Enjoy the darkest day of the year, but don’t forget to have faith. Tomorrow will be brighter!
I was really shy about admitting the whole story about how Far & wee came to be. Why on earth would that be? I mean, I’ve already admitted I wrote twenty sonnets (and illustrated them) in nineteen days (okay, maybe that’s a bit of a flex…). I’ve admitted that I had no patience for getting feedback on the sonnets (this wasn’t that kind of project, honestly).
So I’m impatient and proud and may have rushed this project through (not just to be able to brag that I got it done in twenty-five days, but that doesn’t hurt). Why would I be embarrassed to admit what the spark was that put this whole thing in motion?
Well…
And here’s the shy part.
…the spark came from my persistent and somewhat consuming fandom for a K-Pop group.
There. I said it. I’m a K-Pop fan. K-Pop came along in my life when I needed a lift. And it gave me that! It started with BTS, but it quickly expanded to include groups like TXT and Enhypen…but especially the self-produced group Stray Kids.
If you come into my store, you’ll no doubt hear Stray Kids. If you surprise me in there, you might catch me dancing and sometimes singing along (you don’t need to hear that—I’m bad enough in English). I was fascinated when I found out they write and produce almost all of their songs. They help with choreography and producing the music videos. But especially the writing part. The poetry of these songs is incredible. In three different languages, no less. Mostly Korean and English, but they also write entirely Japanese songs as well as Japanese songs with some English mixed in.
It doesn’t hurt at all that they’re also handsome and charming in addition to prodigiously talented. And they adore their fans.
So how did they inspire me to write Far & wee, a book of sonnets about the balloon-man in e.e. cummings’s “[in Just-]”—when I’d been considering writing such a book for a long time?
It all came about when the leader of Stray Kids, Bang Chan, who loves to tease fans with spoilers they’re never going to figure out until it’s far too late, messaged his fans that his favorite color combination was pink and blue. And how together they made a whole new color.
Well, my first thought was that pink and blue really just makes purple. But I started thinking about pink and blue and purple and somehow it got mixed up in my head with the balloon-man (balloons come in all colors!). And there you go.
I won’t call Far & wee Stray Kids fan art, because it isn’t. But it is art that was done by one of their fans and definitely owes some of the inspiration to them. And a good bit of it was done with them playing in my AirPods or in the background.
So, thank you, Stray Kids. Because I’m really proud of this little book.
I do not know what I want from you. I’m just certain there is something more and the only reason I consider love or romance is because I do not yet know the other. But my soul yearns for it. Across stars and oceans I call. But all I get back is the echo of a whistle of a far away balloon man.
Yesterday my book came. Far & wee. This is my “seize the day” book. I started writing it on May 21 and today, June 15—25 days later—it’s on the shelf at my store. It’s available on Amazon. You can read it if you want.
I’ve never been real good at “launching” my books. I suck at marketing. Especially the initial teasing about what it’s about and throwing myself a big party and signing. I’m more like, hey, I wrote a book. You know, one day it’s not on the shelf at my store, the next day it is. lol.
This book is no different in that respect. Yesterday it was not on the shelf. Today it is. I’ve signed it, priced it and even put up a sign that it’s mine (I don’t usually do that). But yesterday when I opened the box, I got this feeling that this box of books was different.
BREATHE: Michelle Garren-Flye 