Lynn Read

High Flight (Paraphrased)
John Gillespie Magee, Jr.
Oh, she often slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward she climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds — and done a hundred things you and I have not dreamed of

She wheeled and soared and swung high in the sunlit silence.
There, she chased the shouting wind along, and flung her eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long, delirious burning blue,
she topped the windswept heights with easy grace
where never lark, or even eagle flew.
And, now with silent, lifting mind she trods the high,
untrespassed sanctity of space,
Puts out her hand, and touches the face of God.