In Memory of Mike Kouche

High Flight
By John Gillespie Magee, Jr.

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 wind-swept heights with easy
grace where lark, or ever eagle flew-
And, while with silent, lifting mind I’ve trod
 the high un-trespassed sanctity of space,
put out my hand, and touched the face of God