With speeches fair
We woo the gentle air—²
We waste our Substance on the air—³
Man is not born of woman—
But of Air!⁴
Our Residence:
Vast prairies of Air⁵
I see a New World—
Or maybe only gulfs of
Sunlit Air …⁶
O heart of man!
Canst thou not be
Blithe as air, and as Free?⁷
In praise of Air we lift
Our hands to the Heavens—⁸
I weep for the glories of Air!⁹
The air nimbly & sweetly
Recommends itself.¹⁰
¹ Niall Campbell, A Twenty Pound Note
² John Milton, Hymn on the Morning of Christ’s Nativity
³ Alan Dugan, Cool Heels Lament Against Frivolity, the Mask of Despair
⁴ Wallace Stevens, The Pure Good of Theory
⁵ Emily Dickinson, My Period Had Come for Prayer
⁶ Ursula K. Le Guin, Earthsea Revisioned
⁷ H.W. Longfellow, A Day of Sunshine
⁸ Bell Hooks, Appalachian Elegy 40
⁹ Edith Sitwell, Tears
¹⁰ William Shakespeare, Macbeth