Going for a prompt combo again with the Poetic Asides suggestion to write a “take off” poem, and the NaPoWriMo site’s advice to experiment with long-lined poems. I am currently part of a mentorship program with the Writer’s Guild of Alberta, and my skilled and wise mentor Sue Sinclair has been encouraging me to play with longer lines too — both in new poems, and during the revision process with older poems — just to see how things might change or improve. It’s so interesting to see how a poem’s meaning and impact can change depending on the line lengths and breaks.

 

Taking Off

 

She ran faster than I knew she could, her giggles growing louder

with every footfall, unconcerned or maybe spurned on

by my shouts to Stop! Please sweetie, stop!   A game.

Discovering her legs and going, the way only kids can go,

loose-limbed and barreling ahead, wearing joy like a helmet,

outpacing my longer, stronger strides, and my terror as she

veered off the sidewalk and into the road, oblivious to harm.

Blessed with sun, and no traffic, that summer afternoon — she ran

clear to the other side, then stopped. Beaming, as she called back

I won, Mommy! I won!

 

The “take off” prompt reminded me of a famous Canadian poem, “High Flight” by John Gillespie Magee, which is now used as the official poem of the Royal Canadian Air Force.  Whether or not we’re pilots, I think all of us have dreamed of slipping “the surly bonds of Earth”.