Takeoff by Richard Allen Taylor

Takeoff
by
Richard Allen Taylor

From my window seat on the starboard side

I see three aircraft ahead where the taxiway

curves like a shepherd's crook to the takeoff point.

My new beginning twists all the preparation

and waiting into a coil of anticipation,

pressed down like a jack-in-the-box,

eager to let go at the next turn of the crank.

I try not to show the boyish wonder I still feel

about flying, the weight of many elephants

lifted so easily from the Earth. Not that it's a mystery.

The laws of physics tell us, get air moving fast enough

over a well-shaped wing, it has to rise. Funny,

most of my youth I thought planes flew because

of the air pushing up from underneath, like in the song

Wind Beneath My Wings. Only the truth

is wind tunnels and those artist's renderings

of air flow I saw in class--smoky curlicues

over the top of the wing, pulling up on the aircraft

like a vacuum cleaner grabbing a paper plate.

Taken for granted, like the fact of eyes opening

in the morning, of breath still coming in, going out,

the wheels lift, the airplane blooms into flight,

predictable, miraculous.

From Something to Read on the Plane (Main Street Rag, 2004).
Used here with the author's permission.

Richard Allen Taylor earned an MFA in Creative Writing from Queens University in Charlotte, North Carolina and now lives in Greer, South Carolina. Author of five poetry collections including, most recently, Geography of One (Main Street Rag), his poems, articles, and reviews have appeared in numerous publications. A former review editor for The Main Street Rag and a founding co-editor emeritus of the Kakalak Anthology of Poetry and Art, Richard was awarded the 2025 Passionfruit Poetry Prize and has been nominated multiple times for the Pushcart Prize. Learn more about him at https://richardallentaylor.com/.

Nancy Simpson:
...an inviting poem. I want to go flying.
Posted 04/21/2013 09:40 PM

barbara eknoian:
Your explanation about physics makes me feel better about flying. I, too, worry about too much luggage on board.
Posted 04/21/2013 04:30 PM

MaryLeeHahn:
The magic is SO much more fun than the science! (Great illustration, Jayne!)
Posted 04/21/2013 02:25 PM

Buckner14:
I'd always thought of flight as wondrous (as you say in the opening lines of the 2nd stanza_, but never as beautiful until now. Thank you for opening this new perspective.
Posted 04/21/2013 01:50 PM

fer:
So there are other people who feel as I do about flight.... So glad he decided to pick up his poetry pen again in his 50s!
Posted 04/21/2013 09:57 AM

KevinArnold:
Oh yes a poets guide to the mysteries of aerodynamics. Thank you.
Posted 04/21/2013 09:55 AM

TheSilverOne:
As someone who has a childlike amazement over the fact that a machine can fly, I loved this poem.
Posted 04/21/2013 08:02 AM

tannerlynne:
wonderful poem...and yes...full of physics and poetry..."Taken for granted, like the fact of eyes opening in the morning,..."
Posted 04/21/2013 07:47 AM

rksanders@charter.net:
I love the way physics and poetry come together to show the "predictable, miraculous."
Posted 04/21/2013 07:40 AM

Janet Leahy:
I'm still in awe at the point of lifting into the air, I sometimes wonder if we have too many elephants with their trunks of luggage on board.
Posted 04/21/2013 07:24 AM

paradea:
It's great when you actually feel what the poet felt. I love "coil of anticipation...eager to let go! Wonderful poem.
Posted 04/21/2013 07:17 AM

phebe.davidson@gmail.com:
What wonderful lift this one has! "The weight of so many elephants . . ." and then that breathtaking last stanza. Bravo!
Posted 04/21/2013 06:50 AM

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