High Flight...

[warrenpees]

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 W. McGee==
 

[Oz]

We had a TV station that used to sign off every night with a video of that.

[warrenpees]

How many saw that commercial in the 1950's and wanted to be a fighter pilot?  I did.   

[2whyme]

 

How many saw that commercial in the 1950's and wanted to be a fighter pilot?  I did.   

I did, also, but sometimes things don't work out the way one wants.  I ended up as a B-52 crew member.

I have a plaque with "High Flight" on it hanging with the rest of my military plaques, etc.

[Oz]

Me, too.  But I'd have had to stay in the military, and by that time I was tired of taking orders.
 
 

[warrenpees]

By the time I was about 16, my vision was so bad I could barely fly a desk.   

[aesopsfable]

hmm, that explains why you can't see through Obama.

[sweetwater5s9]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTms_G1yYPc&feature=related
 
High Flight... in color

[LadyRavensWing]

Thank you for posting this! This is one of my favorite poems in the whole wide world.

John Gillespie McGee died in combat shortly after it was written.

Beautiful poem!


Ldy R.*  :O)