**************High Flight*************
— by John Magee, Poet and Soldier, 1922–1941
"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 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."
****** *
Goodbye Ragnhild Pavletic. Thou art surely missed. You left fond memories with the friendships cast with Helen Zilwicki, Aikawa Kagiyama and Cthia. You were extremely beautiful without and even more within. You were taken from us much too soon when your pinnace, Hawk-Papa-One, was destroyed by point defense cluster fire from the Mesan armed freighter Marianne, while in orbit around Montana. We shall find that Mesan seven-headed serpent. And upon doing so, we shall sever the hiss from it.
Until then, your spirit soars like the Phoenix. High ... high ... upward in the sky. And you shall reach out and touch the face of God.
