Thinking about my message in a bottle a few days ago, got me thinking of these words by Paul Celan – musing on his challenging poems this morning, but more of that in the near future.

“The poem can, as a manifestation of language and consequently in its essence dialogic, be a message in a bottle, sent in the – certainly not always hopeful – belief that somewhere and sometime it could be washed on land, on heartland perhaps. Poems are on the way also in this manner, they move towards something. Towards what? Towards something that stands open, something that can be occupied, towards a responsive “you” perhaps, towards a responsive reality.”

(Paul Celan in a speech acknowledging a poetry medal awarded him by the city of Bremen: poetry as a kind of precarious conversation or message).

I am no poet. All I have is my ‘cervus fugitivus,’ my ever present fugitive stag! My hope is that my stag will also encounter a genuine open – towards (that) something that stands open … towards a responsive “you” perhaps, towards a responsive reality.