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Anne Skyvington

The Art of Creative Writing

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High Flights: Beginnings and Endings

written by Anne Skyvington September 2, 2016
small-aircraft

 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, or ever 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, Jr

The above Lines from the poem, “High Flight” slipped into my mind, while I was flying over the  Channel on the way to Heathrow Airport. That last line is a douzy!

Mark and I were returning home from Paris via London and Dubai. This was only the first short leg of the journey. We’d left the same way, en route to Roma, ten days earlier.

The clouds below formed a landscape of ridges and rivers, that seemed familiar to me, an Aussie voyager, but was constructed out of fairy floss. I could only imagine the rich French countryside, and the Manche far below, hidden by the snowy screen.

It was a perfect one-hour flight. Very few bumps. The plane had risen above the bad weather in Paris. I brushed away a tear at the thought of the Latin Quarter far away down below. I’d fallen in love with it half a century ago. Rose twilight bands tinted the horizons on both sides of the plane. I glimpsed the silvery half-moon, looking quietly down on the plane, and thought of my young grandson, also named Mark, about to have his fourth birthday party the next day back home. We had thirty hours of travel ahead of us yet. Why oh why was our beloved country so far away from everywhere else?

magee.jpg

On the third of September in 1941, eighteen year old John Gillespie Magee was flying at 30,000 feet in a test flight of the Spitfire V.  As he climbed up above the clouds, he was inspired to write a poem, describing feelings of awe that overcame him when he flew  into a realm of strange beauty far above the earth. Once back on the ground, he wrote a letter to his parents. in which he enclosed a copy of the poem.

Flying fighter sweeps over France and air defense over England against the German Luftwaffe, he rose to the rank of Pilot Officer.

Just three months later, on the eleventh of December 1941 (and only three days after the US entered the war), Pilot Officer John Gillespie Magee, Jr., was killed, when the Spitfire V he was flying, collided with another plane over England.  He was only nineteen years old.

High Flights: Beginnings and Endings was last modified: July 19th, 2017 by Anne Skyvington
a favourite poem about flightHigh Flight by John Gillespie MageeOne disadvantage of living in paradisethe death of the poet
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Anne Skyvington

I have been a reader/writer all of my life as far back as I can remember. Blogging has opened me up to another world, where I can share my skills and continue to create through word and picture. Writing is about seeing the world and recreating it for others to see through different eyes.

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4 comments

Bradley September 2, 2016 at 6:17 pm

Always loved this poem. I’ll try and think about it the next time I fly. I’m not a fan of flying (boredom more than fear) so it may add to the experience.

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Anne Skyvington September 8, 2016 at 9:40 am

Living in Australia means that you have to travel as it’s so far from everywhere! Blogging is a bit like travelling, isn’t it?

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dinadavis2015 October 25, 2015 at 1:03 pm

That’s beautiful. Anne – both the poem, and your own thoughts when flying high above the clouds.

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Anne Skyvington October 25, 2015 at 1:22 pm

Thanks Dina. I’ve been reading Lee Kaufman’s memoir, “A Dangerous Bride”, in which she uses beautiful descriptions and doesn’t hold back. She’s an ex-Russian, Israeli emigré who lived in Melbourne when she first arrived in Australia. Or is it travel, itself, that shakes up something within us?

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About The Author

About The Author

Anne Skyvington

Anne Skyvington is a writer based in Sydney who has been practising and teaching creative writing skills for many years. You can learn here about structuring a short story and how to go about creating a longer work, such as a novel or a memoir. Subscribe to this blog and receive a monthly newsletter on creative writing topics and events.

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About The Author

About The Author

Anne Skyvington is a Sydney-based writer and blogger. <a href="http://anneskyvington.com.au She has self-published a novel, 'Karrana' and is currently writing a creative memoir based on her life and childhood with a spiritual/mystical dimension.

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