Taxi
Slowly
Turn
Pass
Repass
Ugly
Concrete
Patient
Radar
Scanners,
Edging the grey
Tarmac.
Getting lined up.
Pause.
Draw breath
Seemingly, consider.
Seemingly, decide, let out the breath
And roaring start the headlong flight
At a run, determined
That the miracle will happen,
That all the tons of metal, flesh, plastic, fibre,
All will rise, against nature? - no, all will rise
Obedient to the laws of physics
Engineers ingeniously devised…..
We're up!
The world tilts
And now
We are the still
Centre of the universe.
The wheeling world
Embroidered
With cunning seams,
Appliqué fields,
Geometric designs of towns,
Picked out with beads of houses,
Scattered with sequins
Of car windscreens
Flashing in the sunset.
The moon swings by,
Its softened underbelly
Shadowed.
Valleys and dry channels
Unfocused.
But drawn on luminescent blue
Its upper arc is perfect -
A disc, for sure - no sphere like common earth
(Though scientists insist,
And who am I to argue,
For some of them have walked on it.)
And now, a white line along a glassy rim.
The silent sea paints the edge of England
Translucent green.
Fertile seaweed underneath
Clear below the waterline.
Above our static view,
The spectrum colours of the cloudless sunset
Shade softly.
The world wheels on.
And we have taken off.
Emotions = Words = Feelings = Perception = Awareness = Interpretation = assessment = sensibility = Emotions. Sid John. nee
Jan..... Love the structure and 'Take-off' of this one.... Clever lady! Rx
Loved this piece Jan, you make the ordinary sound so very extraordinary! ! Brilliant! HG: -) xx
Superb poem Janice. Beautifully paced too. You take the reader with you, let him/her peer through your window and 'see' your landscape with originality and a great feel for words. 'The silent sea paints the edge of England /Translucent green'. As one who has only 'taken off' on about six occasions - that roaring that kicks in just prior to lift off is particularly powerful and you have captured it to perfection. Tara's right. The last couplet is indeed the icing on the cake. love, Allie ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
You take the reader with you every step of the way from taxi to take off, I love the 3rd stanza in particular - as' the world tilts'...made me almost tilt my head to look at the screen as the visuals you painted came into view. Superb composition that combines the landscape and mindscape equally. j x
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
Janice, wonderful piece of writing. You covered every emotion in your poem. Ian