not waving but drowning

[redhead23]

by stevie smith is one of my favourite poems ever what is yours and why ?

[Cetti]

This makes me cry every time I hear it read:

High Flight

Spitfire pilot
CANADIAN PILOT SHOT DOWN IN 1941

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 windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew-
And, while with silent lifting mind I�ve trod
The high untrespassed sanctitiy of space,
Put out my hand and touched the face of God.

John Gillespie Magee JR