Bottle in the River

Bottle in the River

This collection of forty-four poems follows the journey of the Poet, who jumped into a river to retrieve a bottle tossed by the fingertips of “that I am” . . . the tale of his journal as he journeys down river to the ocean and sea, and back to the air and the rain and the cycle repeats . . .

Meant to illustrate concepts in Dan Sturn's "Invalid Item" , the Poet keeps a journal of his journey, which has three parts:

Finding the Flow: (15 Poems)
The Poet finds the river easy to navigate at first, because when we first begin on “the path,” everything is new and we seem to “go into the flow” so easy. The Poet eventually catches up to the bottle, and asks the Reader to pour it out, revealing a letter that inspires the Poet to go further along his path to enlightenment. Still, much of the message in the bottle is hard to understand, and the euphoria of finding the flow wears off. The Poet crashes and finds himself on "The Bank of Was or Will."

Stuck on the Bank (14 poems)
On the banks of was or will, the Poet witnesses pain and suffering, fear and uncertainty. While struggling to absorb these lessons, he longs to find the flow again. In the midst of the turmoil, the Poet notices that seeing things as they really are can help in the way we react to life’s lessons. The Poet would be happy on the banks of was or will, but then it begins to rain.

The End: We Sea (15 Poems)
Rain brings a flood. The Poet finds himself in a pool of fear, stagnating with the rest of culture. He slips out of it through a cool spring, and returns to the river. There he finds his muse again. He feels a connection to all things. He realizes that he is both a part of the whole and the whole all at the same time. He follows the river to the sea, but finds no blissful existence there. All this time, the Poet thought he was going to evaporate. Feeling cheated, he dives down deep into the ocean, only to find himself at the beginning of the river again. He follows the river all the way to the sea again, only to find himself once again at the beginning of the river.