Michelle Garren Flye's Blog, page 4

National Poetry Month, Day 6: Poem 6, Sonnet 3

Sonnet 3

Healing Night

Night falls over my little home
and stars poke out from the sky.
Clouds cover moon with gentle foam;
traffic silenced, I hear the treefrog cry.

Peace is what I seek this night—
I want quiet, just a little break.
Warm velvet replaces spotlight:
comforts, soothes, relieves the ache.

In spring it is easy to find peace
in the warm, calm hours of eventide.
Look beyond the flowers and trees
to the stars and moon in the sky outside.

Let go of the fears and unease you feel;
allow your heart-deep cracks to heal. Photo and poem copyright 2025 Michelle Garren-Flye

National Poetry Month, Day 5: Poem 5, Haiku 3

Haiku 3

Primal spring nightfall
Over my house and garden
Stars stab cirrus clouds Photo and poem copyright 2025 Michelle Garren-Flye

National Poetry Month Day 4: Poem 4, Sonnet 2

The Lonely Clover

Brooding clover, left all alone
Where did your friend, Mr. Bee, go?
Did he suck your nectar and take it home?
Was all his devotion just for show?

Fear not, you’ll find another bee!
The sky is full of bumbling insects;
they’re buzzing in every nook and tree—
solving your problem isn’t complex.

Abandonment can’t make beauty fade—
in fact sometimes it causes it to grow!
Maybe take a rest here in the shade,
and when you’re ready, you will know.

We can only defend ourselves from strife
if we wish to continue living our life. Photo and poem copyright 2025 Michelle Garren-Flye

National Poetry Month Day 3: Poem 3, Haiku 2

(This titling thing I’m doing is gonna get complicated!)

Haiku 2

bee clings to clover
bumbles through spring’s new blossoms
vernal blessings thrive Photo and poem copyright 2025 Michelle Garren-Flye

National Poetry Month Day 2: Poem 2, Sonnet 1

Sonnet 1

Spring Power
By Michelle Garren-Flye

Spring has its own kind of power,
it gets straight from Apollo.
April’s blessings blossom and shower
along the flower path you follow.

How long has it been since you felt the sun
shine on your shoulders, making you happy
(like John used to say, in the yarn he spun)?
Winter was so long and the weather, crappy.

In the evening, sit down to watch the star shine
as the sky goes from blue to orange to black.
No velvet cloth has ever been so fine
as this background is for the zodiac.

Be still as the clouds gather for rain…
With luck, it will only bring passing pain. Photo and poem copyright 2025 Michelle Garren-Flye

National Poetry Month Day 1: Poem 1, Haiku 1

Haiku 1

April showers blessings
warm weather and flower paths
rain comes later on Photo and poem copyright 2025 Michelle Garren-Flye

Poem: Sidewalk Stroll

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

Celebrating 50,000 words

I just wrote the 50,000th word of my latest work-in-progress. This is significant to me because I haven’t gotten that far on a novel since 2020. I’ve written plenty of poems and actually published several poetry books, but a novel? Ha! My muse wasn’t talking.

But all that changed with this idea. I’ve started and restarted it at least three times. I’ve tried different settings, different time periods, different characters…and it finally seems to be working out. Never being one to do things in order, I made myself a working cover to help keep myself on task. And, in a fairly weird reversal of never judge a book by its cover, I love the cover so much the book has to be written!

So, as a celebration, here’s the preview of the cover (still may change a bit…or a lot) and a brief summary of what it’s all about.

I’m excited!

Cover design by Michelle Garren-Flye Copyright 2025

Set in 18th century England, in an alternate universe where magic and religion are both equated and outlawed, Callie, a natural mage, has hidden her powers all her life while working as a kitchen maid. Callie is discovered in the woods one night by Samir, a servant of the Muses who is traveling England as Lord Wildingham. After witnessing Callie’s magic, Samir recruits his friend Dionysus to accompany him to the manor where Callie works. 

Samir remembers nothing but servitude to the Muses, Callie knows nothing but concealing her magic. Yet together, the two realize they are much more. Their mutual discoveries lead them on a search for the lost pithos of Pandora. The journey tests their love and their beliefs, as they hunt down the sins released from Pandora’s pithos. 

Ranging from the countryside of England to London to the mountains of Greece and beyond, Laws of Lightning imagines a world where magic and mythology intertwine with the conventions of Georgian England. 

Poem for Mama: What Happens to the Love?

My mother, Geraldine “Gerry” Garren, 84, passed away two years ago on this day. I wrote this for her, but it was also inspired by others I know who are suffering. This month has been a cruel one for many.

I hope this will give someone hope, because I truly believe that if you love someone and they love you, death does not take that love. I don’t think it can.

This poem is my theory of what happens to that love…and why it makes your heart ache.

What Happens to the Love?
By Michelle Garren-Flye

Losing you left all the edges:
your love moved into my heart…
god it hurts when it stretches.

Indelible, your love stresses;
oh, can I bear this part?
Losing you left me with edges.

Death can’t claim successes,
so love moves in with art,
causes aches as it stretches.

Accept the way it presses
and tears your chest apart;
losing someone leaves edges.

Patience, time progresses
and lightens what once was hard.
Just breathe as the heart stretches.

Grief is the way love compresses
your love and mine as one in my heart.
Yes, it hurts when it stretches,
and sometimes I still feel the edges.
Photo and poem copyright 2025 Michelle Garren-Flye

Poem: Can’t Touch

Happy Valentine’s Day! (with respect to M.C. Hammer)

Can’t Touch
By Michelle Garren-Flye

Nothing ever really touches
so you can’t touch my heart.
No matter how the blood rushes,
I’m untouchable from the start.

Tis just the repulsion of electrons
that you feel upon your hand.
That’s what fires up your neurons;
it’s nothing like love so grand.

No atom will share its ground
no matter how you may sigh.
To laws of physics we are bound;
can’t escape! Give up, don’t try.

Nothing ever really touches
no matter how the blood rushes. Photo and poem copyright 2025 Michelle Garren-Flye