We Teach ourselves to Fly –
Tuck the Sky beneath our feet²
A Poet isn’t afraid to close their eyes
Around every Winged Thing they find³
We Stir our Pinions and the Nest Forget⁴
Dost thou thy Flight pursue, when Freed
From Matter’s Base Encumbering Weed?⁵
We Fall into Flight from the Broken Ground,
With strident outcry Gather Air under our Wings⁶
Once we were Hand and now we are Wing,
Once we were Dirt and now we are Air,
We were Lifted and now we are Gone⁷
I Flit – I Float – I Fleetly Flee I Fly⁸
We Beat our Wings – that span the
Whole width of the Ruined Town⁹
We on Pinions Surpass the Wind¹⁰
¹ Walter Benjamin tr. Sam Dolbear & Antonia Grousdanidou, Nordic Sea
² John Murillo, Renegades of Funk
³ Nikky Finney, Introduction to Bestiary
⁴ Emily Dickinson, It Did Not Surprise Me
⁵ Anna Lætitia Barbauld, Life
⁶ Wendell Berry, The Gift of Gravity
⁷ Nick Flynn, Sky Burial
⁸ Oscar Hammerstein II, So Long, Farewell, in The Sound of Music
⁹ Ursula K. Le Guin, A Wizard of Earthsea
¹⁰ Phyllis Wheatley, Imagination Who Can Sing Thy Force