Lately, I have noticed that I am able to compose poetry more fluidly when I am riding a motorcycle or sailing. Unfortunately neither of these activities are conducive to writing. But the importance of capturing these fleeting thoughts reminds me of the story of Pilot Officer John Gillespie Magee, Jr., member of the RCAF No 412 squadron. The story goes he composed a poem while flying a Spitfire over Britain and fortunately wrote it down and then mailed it to his parents. Sadly, he was killed December 11th 1941 after a mid-air collision when his parachute failed to open:

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 untresspassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand and touched the face of God.