dir (02/04/83)
A favorite poem: 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 untrespassed sanctity of space,
I put out my hand, and touched the face of
God.
- John G. Magee, Jr.cas (02/05/83)
I seem to remember this poem, (High Flight by John G. Magee Jr.) being used in a short film clip. The clip showed an Air Force jet doing acrobatics in a beautiful cloud filled sky, while a narrator read the poem. The thing used to be shown at sign-off by tv stations, but I haven't seen it in years. I remember I used to stay up until the station signed off just so I could see the clip. Has anybody else ever seen this, or am I further off in left field than normal. Cliff Stevens ...!lime!houxe!cliff ...!lime!houxg!cas
turner (02/07/83)
#R:cbosg:-277500:ucbesvax:1100001:000:580 ucbesvax!turner Feb 6 23:36:00 1983 I think you watch too much late-nite tv, John. Or, at least, that's what they recite around here on the s.f. bay area channels just before signing off the air (with soaring jet-fighters & flags waving in the breeze, kinda tugs at yer heart, y'know). And then, after this stirring poem-hymn, comes the inevitable PSHSHSHSHSHSHSHSHSHSHSHSHSHSHSHSHSHSHSHSHSHSHSHSHSHSHSH..... of tv static. Personally I think tv static has a higher signal-to-noise ratio than that gloppy poem. But then, I always was kind of an effete intellectual snob. No Hard Feelings, Michael Turner
eager (02/08/83)
This poem was used by a TV station in Dayton, Ohio as their sign off. It accompanied a film of the Blue Angles (just one plane, I think). Dayton is home of the Wright brothers and Wright-Patterson AFB. I must have heard & watched the sign-off dozens (maybe hundreds) of times. Thanks for posting it.