My messages in bottles
have dissolved to mush
riding the waves
for so many years
Heartfelt poetry
and crumpled pages
become mere litter
emotional clutter
Like plastic water bottles
clogging the oceans
(Today’s prompt over at the April Poem-A-Day Challenge was a repeat of day 4. Fortunately, tonight I hosted a Germination Workshop for Living Poetry and we wrote to seven prompts over the course of ninety minutes. The above poem was prompted by the above stock photo which the Random Picture Generator offered.)
About Bartholomew Barker
Bartholomew Barker is an organizer of Living Poetry, a collection of poets in the Triangle region of North Carolina where he has hosted a monthly feedback workshop for more than decade. His first poetry collection, Wednesday Night Regular, written in and about strip clubs, was published in 2013. His second, Milkshakes and Chilidogs, a chapbook of food inspired poetry was served in 2017. He was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2021. Born and raised in Ohio, studied in Chicago, he worked in Connecticut for nearly twenty years before moving to Hillsborough where he lives and writes poetry.
Bartholomew Barker, Poet 
Don’t get it. Sorry
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No problem. I wrote it in five minutes and only made minor revisions before posting.
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Thankfully bad poetry can be deleted off hard drives with no environment damage. I can’t say the same for the emotional damage.
😂😀
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Very true!
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I find it a very deep and telling poem. Your poetry does not float unnoticed and turning to mush – it touches others, many orders. It touches me. It’s not litter and never emotional clutter. 🧐
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Orders -> Others
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Thank you, Gypsie, and thanks for writing with me during that Germination Workshop!
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Thank you for hosting yet another great event. I really enjoy this one! 😊
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First, I thought “Cheery sort, ain’t ya’?”
Seriously though – no way is that bad poetry.
It’s telling, that’s what it is.
This might not appear to be relevant, but it is …… note what can happen when you cast your bottle upon the waters….(listen to it right through)….
‘Athazagoraphobia’ will be in m’blog tomorrow.
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PS
It could be said that…your ‘bottles’ are made of glass, not plastic – so they would break down to sea-glass – which can look wonder-full when held up to the light.
There you go….
https://theorkneynews.scot/?s=I+want+to+age+like+sea+glass
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PPS
I have no idea why the two extra bits are in the link for the ‘sea-glass’ piece. The ways of the Internet remain a mystery to me.
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Yeah, it looks like a URL for search results rather than the piece itself but the page is the top result. None the less, good work!
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I really love that one. and I relate, I often feel our voices get drowned to irrelevance. probably one of the side effects of the democratisation brought by the internet. It turned an ocean with a few messages into a pond clogged up with plastic bottles. I still prefer it that way though. the bottles were always there anyway, it’s just that instead of floating, we were sunk at the bottom, unable to reach anyone at all…
Thanks for that. I really enjoyed the read.🙏
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Thank you for reading and extending the metaphor! I agree that things are better now with the internet and the lack of professional editorial filters though that means it’s on the poets to draw attention to their work rather than marketeers.
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NO, don’t let it be so!!
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Don’t worry. I have no intention to stop cluttering up the internet.
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:)
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