“I have often said that the lure of flying is the lure of beauty.” Amelia Earhart
The Midweek Motif for Poets United this week is “Aviation”. The word aviation was coined by French writer and former naval officer Gabriel La Landelle in 1863, from the verb avier (synonymous with flying), itself derived from the Latin word avis (“bird”) and the suffix -ation. The word, easily transferred without modification in its written form to English, is used to describe “the flying or operating of aircraft”. December 7 is International Civil Aviation Day. Here is my poem:
Need to Fly
The wild flapping of feathered wings,
Caged and desperate to escape;
Cries in the night, powerless
To make the moon approach closer;
No amount of war paint can make you
Fearsome enough to overcome your foe.
Memories of a distant flight,
Some place in the past;
The freedom of air rushing by you,
Caressing your every fibre;
No amount of struggle can make you
Break your chains and escape.
The faint glimmer of sunlight
And visions of broken chips of blue sky;
Remembrances of green meadows,
Flowers: Do they still exist?
No amount of wishing can make you
Fly, liberated, untethered, free.
A gilded cage is still a cage, Amelia;
Your every need taken care of
Is no guarantee of happiness;
A captive soul imprisons heart and flesh, too.
No amount of solid earth can make you
Forget the lightness of air…
The Midweek Motif for Poets United this week is “Aviation”. The word aviation was coined by French writer and former naval officer Gabriel La Landelle in 1863, from the verb avier (synonymous with flying), itself derived from the Latin word avis (“bird”) and the suffix -ation. The word, easily transferred without modification in its written form to English, is used to describe “the flying or operating of aircraft”. December 7 is International Civil Aviation Day. Here is my poem:
Need to Fly
The wild flapping of feathered wings,
Caged and desperate to escape;
Cries in the night, powerless
To make the moon approach closer;
No amount of war paint can make you
Fearsome enough to overcome your foe.
Memories of a distant flight,
Some place in the past;
The freedom of air rushing by you,
Caressing your every fibre;
No amount of struggle can make you
Break your chains and escape.
The faint glimmer of sunlight
And visions of broken chips of blue sky;
Remembrances of green meadows,
Flowers: Do they still exist?
No amount of wishing can make you
Fly, liberated, untethered, free.
A gilded cage is still a cage, Amelia;
Your every need taken care of
Is no guarantee of happiness;
A captive soul imprisons heart and flesh, too.
No amount of solid earth can make you
Forget the lightness of air…
"broken chips of blue sky;" it's a clarion call as it were to break all bonds and take that flight...so beautifully penned...
ReplyDeleteOh! Wow! This poem made me feel imprisoned, leaden, heavy and yet still flapping my wings and mouth and hope for the lightness of freedom. Perhaps--though you evoke history and biology and relationship to a mythic past and mine is smaller and domestic in comparison--we wrote about the same thing?
ReplyDeleteNo amount of solid earth can make you
ReplyDeleteForget the lightness of air…
Beautiful!!!❤️
This is beautiful. I thought of writing about her , too. She is an iconic figure. So brave.
ReplyDelete"The faint glimmer of sunlight
ReplyDeleteAnd visions of broken chips of blue sky;
Remembrances of green meadows,
Flowers: Do they still exist?
No amount of wishing can make you
Fly, liberated, untethered, free."
my favourite verse
much love...
Good Gracious!
ReplyDelete"No amount of solid earth can make you
Forget the lightness of air…"
Ah, well...no wonder, the thought of flying fill me with dread.
Beautifully penned.
This is lovely, Made me examine the places in my soul that are trapped and still need to fly.
ReplyDeleteThis is very moving, Nick. Indeed 'a gilded cage is still a cage.' Sigh.
ReplyDeleteYou really took flight with this poem - a cage is indeed a cage.. no matter the construction and we all need to break free and escape.. even if in our thoughts and imagination
ReplyDelete