Poetry challenge #31: Message in a bottle

I had been going to try out a Kyrielle this week, but came across this picture and decided to give the photo prompt another week.

What does this image inspire? Hope, despair, luck, vast oceans, empty beaches, childhood stories, shipwreck, desert islands?

With such a wealth of subject matter, you might want to make things a bit more difficult/demanding by using some or all of these words. It’s up to you.

Ethereal, placid, meander, forget, silver

In case you’re wondering, I don’t cheat and just pick out words from a poem I’ve already written. I choose the words first, then try and fit them into a poem, just to make sure they aren’t too hard to place.

Please post the link to your poem in the comments before next Wednesday, and please have lots of fun.

1280px-JTF_Guantanamo_Sailor_Sends_a_Message_in_a_Bottle_DVIDS231291

There was a storm tonight, and nothing left to do

But shun the mocking light and send a word to you.

With trembling fingers write, the last worlds left to say,

Toss them in the night and watch them slip away.

Silver sprinkled waves fall crashing on the shore,

I hear no voice that saves, to make it like before.

The placid day is done, and I am for the dark

Without your shining sun that rises with the lark,

Without your river bright, meanders slow and strong,

My hopes have taken flight, hoarse the skylark’s song.

White feathers fill the sky, ethereal and yet,

The dreams refuse to die, my heart cannot forget.

Published by

Jane Dougherty

I used to do lots of things I didn't much enjoy. Now I am officially a writer. It's what I always wanted to be.

44 thoughts on “Poetry challenge #31: Message in a bottle”

  1. Ooooh… I like that a lot! I can see those waves, feel that wind, taste the salt spray on my lips. Very atmospheric!

    1. Thanks Janice 🙂 I know some people don’t get on with rhyme or other constraints, and I like to try the prompt out first to make sure it isn’t going to be too difficult. It would be easy to write a poem and pick out a few of the words I’d used, but that would defeat the object of the words being an inspiration 🙂

  2. I’m not posting it on my site, for a reason. But here goes…
    “my thoughts meander to that night
    so ethereal was that sight
    The rain without, the storm within
    my oft remembered silver sin
    scratched off my placid skin and yet
    I’ve never tried to forget…”

Leave a reply to Mark Thompson Cancel reply