When you think of the U.S. Air Force, the first thing you think of is probably not poetry. But when I was a cadet in AFROTC we had to memorize the (un?)official poem of the Air Force, and in the years since I always think of its verses fondly. The name of the poem is “High Flight” and it’s actually pretty good. Whenever I read it, I imagine what it must have been like to be one of the first pilots to leave the ground, or to be on board one of the space shuttles as the bonds of gravity are left behind… Take a look for yourself below (and don’t be afraid to read it aloud…).
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 windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew -
And, while with silent lifting mind I’ve trod
The high untresspassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand and touched the face of God.
–John Gillespie Magee, Jr.
Posted by Micah McMillan 
