written and posted by members of Lancashire Dead Good Poets' Society

Friday 5 May 2017

No bottles please.

Originally I thought I'd not have time to write today as I'm off for a few days, but since I'm awake early, here goes.

It's rather romantic and exciting to imagine that a message put into a bottle might reach an exotic destination...and true enough they sometimes do. However in the world of plastics the act of throwing a message in a plastic bottle seems very foolhardy. Every week in Cleveleys there is a group of volunteers who clear the beach of flotsam and jetsam that is a danger to the environment. Plastic products seem to be the worst culprit . Not only are they unsightly, but the toxins released by their slow decay are poisoning the oceans. The bits are swallowed by sea life causing slow and painful deaths. Birds get entangled in nylon lines and beer can ' ties'.

So whereas many years ago one put a message in a glass bottle (and mind you this was a danger too...remember going to the seaside and standing on a shard ? Ouch!) and it floated off into the great unknown - nowadays one is more likely to use a plastic bottle. Please DON'T! Don't add to the plastic menace that is spoiling our oceans and indeed our countryside too. Take the bottle home, put it in the recycling bin, let it be made onto something more useful like a bench or a cosy fleece blanket.

Yes, discard your bottles carefully.


My poem today was hurriedly composed whilst eating my morning porridge, so it might not be perfect.

                   No messages in my bottles

     Don't put a message in a bottle. Don't cast it to the sea.
     The whales and dolphins eat them, and slowly cease to be.
     The turtles and the porpoises throughout the oceans blue
     Are dying from the plastic carelessly dropped by you.

     So this message that I send to you came over waves anew-
     Came to you by Internet and that's what you must do.
     Don't put your message in a bottle- keep it close to home,
     Keep in touch with those you love - use the telephone.

     Bottles, bottle tops, plastic toys and the like,
     Take them home from your walk, take them on a hike.
     Recycle them from home, weekly as they do.
     That's the bottless message that I send to you.

           Thanks for reading, bye for now....Kath

1 comments:

Steve Rowland said...

You tell 'em, Kath. Hope your porridge was 'just right'.