"...before I was born surely I could fly.
Not well, mind you, only a veil of skin
from my arms to my waist.
I flew at night, too. Not to be seen
for if I were I'd be taken down.
In August perhaps as the trees rose to the stars
I have flown from leaf to leaf in the thick dark.
If you had caught me with your flashlight
you would have seen a pink corpse with wings..."
What is it about flight that we find so appealing in poems, stories and visual art? Perhaps it's the wings that do it for me. These amazing appendages, which are structurally alike to the human hand, are fascinating, especially outstretched. I always feel that if a turkey could fly it would gain a certain majesty; even a vulture, which can seem so crouched, gains grace when it's circling.
Once, several years ago, I had a flying dream. There's quite a lot written about this type of dream, and for me the experience was extraordinary. It was unlike anything I'd ever dreamed before -- so vivid and free. Quite a transformation. I felt, as I dreamed, that I had all the answers, that life was simply easy, that the I'd somehow transcended. I was flying over the sea and could taste the salt air.
I'm sure, at one point or another, we've all read about fliers. Flight can be associated with childhood imagination, or superpowers, or other liberations. The birth of the aeroplane came from a human obsession with flight, and angels, fairies and other enlightened beings have access to higher worlds. As for poor old Icarus, he gets a bad press. Many of us, as writers, know what it's like to aim too high, but it's when we depend on the outcome that we need to think again. It's hard to try for the high place and then get burnt or melted; but as long as we can pick ourselves up, I reckon it makes us stronger.
Perhaps the power of flight in all kinds of art is its potential for metaphor. Even back in Anglo-Saxon times, the image of a sparrow flying through the meadhall was often used to represent human life -- the idea being that we're not here for long, and what comes before and after us is vaster than we know. Specifically, this was a Christian image, but I believe it's relevant whatever our beliefs: Let's fly while we can. If you love writing... do it.
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