High Flight

[Mike Griffin]

HIGH FLIGHT

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of—wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air....
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark nor even eagle flew—
And, while with silent lifting mind I’ve trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

John Gillespie Magee

[steven yampolsky]

Aviation records don't fall until someone is willing to mortgage the present for the future.

-Amelia Earhart.

[John Harold]

High Flight is a stirring poem. Flying solo is something very special.

[john e. holliday]

Doing anything solo can get a person in closer contact with GOD, especially when the hours are long.

[Bill Heher]

I remember the local TV station late night sign-off, a silver F-86 soaring through and breaking out of the clouds while the narrator recited "High Flight", and  closing with the flag waving in the foreground while a flight of Sabres in Finger 4 formation flies over.
 It always made me feel proud and safe to know that even tough it way past time to go to sleep, others would be on alert ad protecting us all night.

Great Poem, and true story of sacrifice - written by an RAF pilot during the Battle of Britian, he was killed in action.