in flight

It's National Poetry Month. I'll try posting a poem a day as I attempted last year.

In Flight


The Himalayan legend says
there are beautiful white birds
that live completely in flight.
They are born in the air,

must learn to fly before falling
and die also in their flying.
Maybe you have been born
into such a life

with the bottom dropping out.
Maybe gravity is claiming you
and you feel
ghost-scripted.

For the one who lives inside the fall,
the sky beneath the sky of all.

-Jennifer K. Sweeney


I think it's a really beautiful poem. Here's a link to her book How to Live on Bread and Music.

I also recommend listening to it on the Academy of American Poets site.