When two women, Susan and Juliet, met for the first time at The Way I Flourish (the online poetry course run by Connected Worlds) something magical happened. Juliet wasn’t going to attend having recently been bereaved but changed her mind at the last minute. Given the same prompt (A Message in a Bottle starting with the words, ‘To the person who finds it, I want to tell you…’) they created an almost perfect conversation. It felt as if Susan, whose contribution is in italics, was answering Juliet’s questions. We had to share this poem – creative solidarity in action!
Message in a Bottle
I want to tell you I am alone, I am lost.
I want to tell you that you are not lost
I don’t know where I am
Not far from here there is another shore
Sand, stone and waves that will carry you
I don’t know who I am, you cannot find me.
You found me, we found each other
In a place like this, on a day like today
Destiny’s happy accident
I don’t know where I came from,
or where to go from here.
So how can anybody find me?
Together we are forever arrived
And now we’ve met, we will never unmeet
How will I find me?
Take me with you and we’ll move to a new place
Cast me away and I’ll float again
And if, at last, I sink
This will be a beautiful memory
Never lost.
Do I even exist?
Eternity is a moment
A moment is eternal
Did I ever exist?
Perfect stranger
Afloat on this moment of moments
I knew you all along
By Juliet McDonald and Susan Hunter Downer
Picture credit: “Message in a bottle” by Kraftwerck
