touch the sky: two voices

SusannahH

 

Mountain-Top-Beauty green border

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 wind-swept 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,
– put out my hand, and touched the face of God.”

by John Gillespie McGee, Jr.
Aviator and Poet
1922-1941

 

Credit to Martha Kennedy, author and artist
Feather: Pen and Ink Sketch by Martha Ann Kennedy [click image for artist’s gallery blog]

Power Lines and a Climber’s Log

“Down below, we human giants shove through the traffic jams of our human problems and we feel so big, as if everything has to be arranged and controlled and changed by us. We blunder our way through relationships, compete our way through our jobs, meeting deadlines that seem like the end of the world, and we hate ourselves when we ‘fail.’

…. I realized that the mountain added about a thousand feet to the height of everyone who climbed it, but the writers of the messages didn’t seem to feel bigger or more powerful. There, at the highest altitude of all our effort, everyone seemed reminded of their true scale in the universe.

As someone wrote, ‘Everywhere I look, I see the hand of God.’”

by Martha Kennedy, writer and artist,
posted on her blog, Martha’s Everest, March 7, 2016
[The post entitled Power Lines and a Climbers’ Log, from which I excerpted
the short pieces above, is located here.]

And last but never least, a lovely reminder from Rumi:

only-from-the-heart BORDER
Credit: Facets of Joy [click image for website]
Namaste!
Susannah

 

 

 

 

 

10 Comments

  1. Thank you, Susannah, for sharing my work (of course) but even more for sharing a vision shared by two hearts so many thousand miles distant from each other. That is truly a gift. ❤

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  2. Reblogged this on I'm a Writer, Yes I Am and commented:
    Writing a blog post every day for the last couple of years has brought into my world some marvelous people I may never meet in real life. Susannah is one of these people. In this post Susannah has brought the hearts of two friends together even though we are thousands of miles apart and will likely always be so. I feel very grateful, not the least because the technology we have today has this kind of power for good. ❤

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    1. Martha, I’m honoured that you chose to reblog my “two voices.” I’m grateful too for having found your blog, and for the ability to be in touch. It proves the truth that the distance between two kindred souls is negligible, no matter how far apart the places we call home. ❤

      Liked by 1 person

  3. At a prison I volunteered at, one the prisoners used to be a military pilot and mentioned this poem. I had not heard it before so Googled it, printed it out and gave it to him the following week. He about cried. I saved a copy for me because that last line always gives me goosebumps. Namaste, Susannah.

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    1. Thank you for your comment, Lois. I can imagine how much meaning that poem had for your pilot, given the contrast between the freedom of the skies and his situation at the time. I love the poem too. Back in the day, our middle school class had to memorize it, and it’s stayed in my head ever since. I wasn’t much crazy about memorization at the time, but I really enjoy having poetry like that come back to mind even now, over half a century later.

      Namaste!

      P.S. The last line gives me goosebumps too.

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    1. Hey Jude (sorry, I just had to do that; I’ve been wanting to FOREVER!) Thanks for your note. That was one of the easiest posts I’ve ever done. It just all fell into place, and it said exactly what I wanted to say, in exactly the way I wanted to say it. Too bad they don’t all come that easy. 🙂

      P.S. I love Rumi too. Namaste!

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  6. Hey Susannah! I’m very used to ‘Hey Jude! Some posts seem to take a lot of thought and as you say, some just fall out of the pen – or should I say the keyboard. 🙂
    Namaste x

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