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| Civil aircraft. Photo: ICAO “Working Together to Ensure No Country is Left Behind” (Theme of International Civil Aviation Day for 2015-2019) |
“The desire to fly is an idea handed down to us by our ancestors who... looked enviously on the birds soaring freely through space... on the infinite highway of the air.” ― Wilbur Wright
“Once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return.” ― Leonardo da Vinci
“Thank God men cannot fly, and lay waste the sky as well as the earth.” ― Henry David Thoreau
"Aviation, this young modern giant, exemplifies the possible relationship of women and the creations of science. Although women have not taken full advantage of its use and benefits, air travel is as available to them as to men."--Amelia Earhart“Flying might not be all plain sailing, but the fun of it is worth the price.”― Amelia Earhart
Midweek Motif ~ Aviation
Today's motif may feel like a complete change of subject,
but it can be as political or non-political as you make it.
7
December is International
Civil Aviation Day. Interesting that it is the same day as the USA National
Pearl Harbor Remembrance. Do the two uses of aviation~for war and for
peace~balance each other out?
I rarely fly. I've been finding flying increasingly uncomfortable from airport security and
wait time to take off, flight service and landing. But still, flying to a remote location for vacation is a privilege that carries romance as well as discomfort and danger.
Our Challenge:
Compose a new poem from the point of view of someone looking out the window of
a flying machine.
Laurie Anderson's "From the Air"
(At What Used to Be Called Idlewild)
The line didn’t move, though there were not
many people in it. In a half-hearted light
the lone agent dealt patiently, noiselessly, endlessly
with a large dazed family ranging
from twin toddlers in strollers to an old lady
in a bent wheelchair. Their baggage
was all in cardboard boxes. The plane was delayed,
the rumor went through the line. We shrugged,
in our hopeless overcoats. Aviation
had never seemed a very natural idea.
. . . .
excerpt from New York to San Fran
Related Poem Content Details
. . . .
Once more wingtip lifting to the sun
& whine of dynamos in the
stunned ear,
and shafts of light on the page
in the airplane cabin —
Once more the cities of cloud
advancing over New York —
Once more the houses parked like used
cars in myriad row lots —
I plug in the Jetarama Theater
sterilized Earphones —
it’s wagner!
the ride of the valkyries!
We’re above the clouds! The
like mountain ranges
Sunlight flashes on a giant bay!
Earth is below! The horns of
Siegfried sound gigantic in my ear —
The banks of silver clouds like mountain ranges
I spread my giant green map
on the air-table —
The Hudson curved below to the
floor-drop of the World,
Mountain range after mountain range,
Thunder after thunder,
Cumulus above cumulus,
World after world reborn,
in the ears
. . . .
(Read the rest HERE at the Poetry Foundation.)
Courage
BY Amelia Earhart
Courage is the price that Life exacts
for granting peace.
The soul that knows it not
Knows no release from little things:
Knows not the livid loneliness of fear,
Nor mountain heights where bitter joy can hear
The sound of wings.
How can life grant us boon of living, compensate
For dull gray ugliness and pregnant hate
Unless we dare
The soul's dominion? Each time we
make a choice, we pay
With courage to behold the resistless day,
And count it fair.
Please share your new poem using Mr. Linky below and visit others in the spirit of the community. AND: please put a link to this prompt with your poem.
(Next week Sumana's Midweek Motif will be Music. )
