I would like to honor my brother, Geoff, by sharing a wonderful poem which is the official poem of the Royal Air Force and the Royal Canadian Air Force and is required to be memorized by cadets at the US Air Force Academy. It was written by John Gillespie Magee, Jr an Americanaviator who died in World War II
It is called – “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 have trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
– Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.
We love you and will miss you Geoff
