> Hello Colin,
What about `Flight of the Phoenix´? Despite the lack of flames this kite does rise from the dead in one sense. A nice tale, though I found the phrase `Such kept....´in line 7 a rather awkward construction.
Best wishes, Mike
> Lähettäjä: Colin dewar <[log in to unmask]>
> Päiväys: 2004/02/11 ke PM 10:50:51 GMT+02:00
> Vastaanottaja: [log in to unmask]
> Aihe: newsub/flight
>
> Flight of the...
>
>
>
> It lay in the drawer
> with blue nylon softened by dust,
> the kite I'd made at sixteen,
> when most friends
> preferred strong beer and cars
> to any toy on string.
> Such kept for later
> I thought. Too soon
> the soaring days were over,
> fallen to a flat icon on the floor
> and a cloth tail
> folded...
>
> and so it waited
> until this summer
> when we took it by road
> with your bucket and spade,
> by ferry from Mallaig,
> on foot over the whale
> hump of Canna,
> past hazels prevailing
> in one direction
> like the fingers of stiff hands,
> a firm southerly easing us up
> and over each basalt block,
> bog cotton bent all the way,
> wiry grasses streaming
> to where rock, bog and grass
> all dropped from view
> where you looked with your weight
> on the back foot
> on small quiet breakers,
> kicked moss and rabbit bones
> to oblivion.
>
> It ripped up among astounded gulls,
> a thrown diamond,
> till it found its element and floated
> as weightless as thought,
> as the Cuillin of Skye in blue haze,
> as furthest Hebrides on a levelled sea.
> You took the cord with your strong, young hands
> and held it.
> Remember that moment,
> the long, upward tug of joy.
>
>
> Colin
>
> PS What is the word missing in the title? Any suggestions for a better
> title?
>
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