The Message

 

                                                                                     

My friend Margaret Gosden created this artwork to celebrate the finding of a message in a bottle many years ago. 

(Learn more of her techniques at http://mgosden.blogspot.com). 

I intended to write a poem about her experience but something more personal evolved.

THE MESSAGE

I am a message,

A message in a bottle.

I am also the bottle.

We are indivisible.

I was cast upon the waters

'In the beginning'.

The glass from which I was fashioned was glossy then,

With a shimmering sheen.

I bobbed merrily

In playful waves.

My message was safe,

On crisply folded paper.

The tides pulled, 

The currents dragged,

The winds toyed.

But my destination was inevitable.

Later came the debris,

The flotsam and jetsam,

The irritating loveliness

Of other passing bottles.

Some collided with me,

For good or ill.

Sometimes storms came.

I rolled,

I dived,

I twisted.

Yet I survived.

My glass was strong;

My message was safe.

Still crisp,

Still neatly folded.

Now hairline cracks appear in the glass!

Will the message be ruined?

 I float towards

The Destination.

I can see it from here.

It is swathed in cloud.

Shall I smash on the rocks?

Or shall I mysteriously

Move into the cloud

And find that I have been wrong all along?

If the 'me' of the bottle smashes

The 'me' of the message will also be destroyed.

And will that matter?

The message is banal anyway.

It merely says 

'I AM'