This is a Touching Poem in light of yesterday,s tragedy:"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,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."Ain,t that a good poem??I thought it was beautiful.

Very beautiful. Thanks. I hope to see more from you now that you have shown your skill. [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img]

Where did the poem come from? Did you write it?

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"As I lay beneath the Southern Cross, the stars tell more than I could" . . . David Meece

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, 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.

- John Gillespie Magee, Jr, 1922-1944

If I recall correctly, Ronald Reagan quoted this same poem after the Challenger exploded. It is a good poem though.

The astronauts also carried the poem on Apollo 10.Or was that mission faked??LOL.

It is the most fitting poem, and when Reagan read from that after the Challenger's passing, I couldn't see for tears...

The spirit that motivated these words are all the justification I feel is needed for Humanity's Movement into space..

So fligh higher and write more! [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img]

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Popeye ate spinach because they wanted to market spinach to children. What a relief, then, that Superman doesn't eat Kryptonite.

I learned this through personal downtimes.

As you'll see below, I've fine tuned it. For two reasons.
First, that day has passed now, we move forward.
Second, "sparkle" suggests we're imagining them from the ground, so i looked for a word that didn't waver. [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img]

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Popeye ate spinach because they wanted to market spinach to children. What a relief, then, that Superman doesn't eat Kryptonite.

I'd like to add the following to the wonderful poem posted. The first time I heard this song I thought of Challenger.

Learning to Fly

Into the distance, a ribbon of black
Stretched to the point of no turning back
A flight of fancy on a windswept field
Standing alone my senses reeled
A fatal attraction holding me fast, how
Can I escape this irresistible grasp?

Can't keep my eyes from the circling skies
Tongue-tied and twisted Just an earth-bound misfit, I

Ice is forming on the tips of my wings
Unheeded warnings, I thought I thought of everything
No navigator to guide my way home
Unladened, empty and turned to stone

A soul in tension that's learning to fly
Condition grounded but determined to try
Can't keep my eyes from the circling skies
Tongue-tied and twisted just an earth-bound misfit, I

Above the planet on a wing and a prayer,
My grubby halo, a vapour trail in the empty air,
Across the clouds I see my shadow fly
Out of the corner of my watering eye
A dream unthreatened by the morning light
Could blow this soul right through the roof of the night

There's no sensation to compare with this
Suspended animation, A state of bliss
Can't keep my eyes from the circling skies
Tongue-tied and twisted just an earth-bound misfit.

Pink Floyd - Momentary Of Reason (1987)

I believe he died in 1941, just a few days after Pearl Harbor, in England. Here's an online cite.

3142 posts!? Perfect. Or should I say transcendental?

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: GrapesOfWrath on 2003-02-04 04:13 ]</font>

Well, I'm finally able to talk about this a bit. Saturday, I was silent and could hardly watch the TV. Yesterday I tried to learn a bit and lurked on the boards here some but didn't think I could add anything.

Since we're kind of doing poems here I thought I'd share this. This is a powerful song by the Canadian group Rush. They were invited to be special guests at the launch of STS-001 back in 1981. Lyricist Neil Peart penned these words to try to convey the experience.

I can't get the song out of my head nor get the tears to stop flowing. I'm so sad I don't know what to do.


Words by Neil Peart, Music by Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson
Dedicated with thanks to astronauts Young & Crippen and all the people of NASA for their
inspiration and cooperation

Countdown
Lit up with anticipation
We arrive at the launching site
The sky is still dark, nearing dawn
On the Florida coastline

Circling choppers slash the night
With roving searchlight beams
This magic day when super-science
Mingles with the bright stuff of dreams

Floodlit in the hazy distance
The star of this unearthly show
Venting vapours, like the breath
Of a sleeping white dragon

Crackling speakers, voices tense
Resume the final count
All systems check, T minus nine
As the sun and the drama start to mount

The air is charged --- a humid, motionless mass
The crowds and the cameras,
The cars full of spectators pass
Excitement so thick --- you could cut it with a knife
Technology --- high, on the leading edge of life

The earth beneath us starts to tremble
With the spreading of a low black cloud
A thunderous roar shakes the air
Like the whole world exploding

Scorching blast of golden fire
As it slowly leaves the ground
Tears away with a mighty force
The air is shattered by the awesome sound

Like a pillar of cloud, the smoke lingers
High in the air
In fascination --- with the eyes of the world
We stare...

While we're on a lyric/poem thread, I thought I'd post this bit from Alan Parsons' album "On Air" (released 1996).

SO FAR AWAY (WELCOME TO THE MISSION)
written by Ian Bairnson

We say Welcome to the mission
Show us all that you can do
We need a man with vision
So we put our trust in you
And now we hope sincerely
That you'll do the best that you can do

Oh for sure it won't be easy
And we'll have to risk our lives
Some will try to break us
And cut us down to size
But just remember
There can be no consolation prize
Not in our eyes

It's a long way to go
We can't wait one more day
We need someone to light up the way
We may run out of time
Can you hear what we say?
Because heaven is so far away

Although time is getting short
There's still some sand left in the glass
And now we have a living breathing
Rocket man at last
It's time to take a step
And nail our colours to the mast

No more talk of great adventures
When it's movement that we need
It must be our intention
That we never lose the lead
So count us down to zero
And let's get up to speed
We're up and away

It's a long way to go
We can't wait one more day
We need someone to light up the way
We may run out of time
So believe what we say
Because heaven is so far away

And so now they cry for justice
As if justice will be done
But the eye up in the sky
Was flying too close to the sun
The Challenger has fallen
And the race has now been run....

In the silence of the darkness, when all are fast asleep
I live inside a Dream calling to your spirit
As a sail calls the wind, hear the angels sing
Far beyond the sun, across the western Sky
Reach inside the blackness, find the silver line
In a voice I whisper, a candle in the night
Will carry all our dreams in a single beam of light

Close your eyes, look into your dreams
Winds of change will winds of fortune bring

Fly away, to the rainbow in the sky
Gold is at the end for each of us to find
There the road begins, where another one will end
Here the four winds know who will break and who will bend
All to be the master of the wind

Falling stars now light my way
My life was written on the wind
Clouds above, clouds below
I acsend the dreams within
When the wind fills the sky, the clouds will move aside
There will be the road to all our dreams
For any day that stings, two better days it brings
Nothing is as bad as it seems...

Manowar, Master of the Wind

We will return to space, it is too much in our nature to always reach for the stars.

edit: spelling

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: darkhunter on 2003-02-03 17:39 ]</font>

Thanks Grapes, my bad.

Dog

Those dates for Magee appear all over the place, I'm not sure how it became 1944. I'm just impressed that he was only 19.