Message in a Bottle:
Poets Respond to Hopeful Communication
Editors: Mary Beth Bretzlauf, William T. Carey, Jennifer Dotson, Julie Isaacson,
Jen Meyer & Marjorie Rissman
Cover Design: Jennifer Dotson
Format: 6 x 9 ~ Perfect Bound ~ Soft Cover
83 Poems ~ 78 pages ~ Bios of each participating poet and editor
Price: $15.00
Publisher: Highland Park Poetry Press
ISBN-13: 979-8-9880919-7-4
To Order: Amazon.com
ABOUT THE BOOK:
For the 2025 Summer Muses’ Gallery, Highland Park Poetry asked poets to write about a message in a bottle. These selected poems investigate everything you ever wanted to know about this desperate and optimistic communication from distress messages, scientific studies, invitations to possible pen pals, and love letters. There are also variations on this form of improbable communications like time capsules, interstellar radio messages, and more. Poems are grouped into three sections: Time, Bottle, and Message.
ADVANCE PRAISE:
Highland Park Poetry Press has once again created and published an outstanding anthology. The theme itself grabs the attention: Message in a Bottle. Such a theme gives free imaginative reign to the selected talented poets whose work is unforgettable. This collection contains an amazing range of styles written in free verse, traditional verse, and interesting shape poems as well. In her poem “Blue Bottle” contributor Jan Chronister creates a haunting image: “I can picture the farmer– / tractor barely works, / rain clouds threaten, / twelve milk cows wait / to be let in the barn.” Wow! All this from a blue bottle discovered in a “hayfield last mowed years ago.”
–Michael Escoubas, author of Monet in Poetry and Paint
Having lived my life along the lovely seashores of southern California, I know what it means to step in wet sand, my toes baptized by sea foam. Message in a Bottle returned me to those long-ago days in which shells and old bottles washed onto the shore. So many poems in this collection spoke to me, placed me in sea salt breezes, making me wish that such joys might be mine once again.
–Sharmagne Leland-St. John, author of Images: A Collection of Ekphrastic Poetry
ABOUT THE EDITORS:
Mary Beth Bretzlauf is the current President of the Illinois State Poetry Society and is the author of The Path that Beckons: Poems About the Journey.
William T. Carey is a retired attorney and real estate investor. His first love is poetry to which he returned in his retirement years. William is the author of Family Rattling.
Jennifer Dotson is Founder and Facilitator of Highland Park Poetry (2007). She avers that if stranded on a deserted island she would desire most of all to be with her husband David for his love and companionship and for his practical life skills. Jennifer is the author Late Night Talk Show Fantasy & and Other Poems.
Julie Isaacson lives in Highland Park Illinois. She is a frequent contributor to Highland Park Poetry. As an educator, she loves teaching students of all ages to become strong writers.
Jen Meyer can be found walking the western shores of Lake Michigan while hunting for bottles with messages and happily settling for interesting rocks and beach glass.
Marjorie Rissman is an active member of four poetry communities: Highland Park Poetry, East on Central, Poets and Patrons, and the Illinois State Poetry Society.
FROM THE BOOK:
Green Magical Bottle
by Hanh Chau, San Jose, California
Sing me your uplifting song
with my prayer of notes in
the green magical bottle
riding along at a melody pace
in the tender caressing wave
Carry in a slow-motion way
a silent and murmuring sound
traveling across from the
Atlantic Ocean spray
cradling with the rhythm
flows, take on a roller coaster
sending the quest of a lost one
to find connection
solace, quiet spirit
Bring a peaceful mind
hearing the soothing sway
leading to a restful place
with a message to convey
and delivery to the
final resting destination
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