I've always liked this poem. When I was in High School, I'd spend Saturday night at a friend's house (or one or more would come over to mine) and we'd watch Bob Wilkins' monster theater on Channel 3 with the sound turned really low (so as not to awaken parents). When the monster movie was over, Channel 3 would sign off by showing a short film of an F-104 Starfighter flying around while someone recited "High Flight". After that they'd play the national anthem and stop transmitting until around 5:00 a.m.

I always got tears in my eyes even then, before I understood the significance of the poem. Today I stumbled across the link above and had to reach for the kleenex. Of course, I have other things going on in my life that probably contributed, but I really like this poem and thought I'd share it with you.

--Baloo

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Archives are a thing of the past.
www.geocities.com/Area51/Shire/8641/

Learning To Fly

Into the distance, a ribbon of black
Stretched to the point of no turning back
A flight of fancy on a windswept field
Standing alone my senses reeled
A fatal attraction holding me fast, how
Can I escape this irresistible grasp?

Can't keep my eyes from the circling skies
Tongue-tied and twisted Just an earth-bound misfit, I

Ice is forming on the tips of my wings
Unheeded warnings, I thought I thought of everything
No navigator to guide my way home
Unladened, empty and turned to stone

A soul in tension that's learning to fly
Condition grounded but determined to try
Can't keep my eyes from the circling skies
Tongue-tied and twisted just an earth-bound misfit, I

Above the planet on a wing and a prayer,
My grubby halo, a vapour trail in the empty air,
Across the clouds I see my shadow fly
Out of the corner of my watering eye
A dream unthreatened by the morning light
Could blow this soul right through the roof of the night

There's no sensation to compare with this
Suspended animation, A state of bliss
Can't keep my eyes from the circling skies
Tongue-tied and twisted just an earth-bound misfit, I

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The unexplained phenomenon that crippled the U.S.S. Unimpeachable --
Gaseous Anomaly...
What anomalises gaseously.