poems

[sad old git]

I tried to ask a question yesterday but got cut off for some reason. So here we go again. In the excellent film "The Way To The Stars" there was a poem that began with the words "Do not despair for Peter head in air". Can anyone help with the rest of it and who wrote it?.

[Fibonacci]

For Johnny
by John Pudney

Do not despair
For Johnny-head-in-air;
He sleeps as sound
As Johnny underground.
Fetch out no shroud
For Johnny-in-the-cloud;
And keep your tears
For him in after years.

Better by far
For Johnny-the-bright-star,
To keep your head,
And see his children fed.

In 1940 Pudney was commissioned into the Royal Air Force as an intelligence officer and as a member of the Air Ministry's Creative Writer's Unit. During World War II Pudney published articles for this organization and wrote considerable poetry, including his famous ode to British airmen, "For Johnny." This poem achieved national significance and was broadcast and performed by several famous actors including Sir Laurence Olivier.
used in the appropriately named 1945 film "The Way To The Stars"

[sad old git]

Thank you so much for the answer, stupid of me to have got the name wrong as I watch this film whenever it comes on TV, but that's where the "Old" bit comes into my name.

[sarah_louise]

You might like another one. John Magee RCAF
It is called 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 even 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.