Thursday, October 18, 2012

Poetry Friday: Falling


I'm not a big fan of long poems, but I do have a few I enjoy reading and re-reading. This one is a favorite.

It seems especially suitable in a grim yet oh-so-lovely way after Fearless Felix's successful jump from the stratosphere this week.

The poem is by James Dickey (of Deliverance fame), and was based on this true incident.

A 29-year-old stewardess fell ... to her
death tonight when she was swept
through an emergency door that sud-
denly sprang open ... The body ...
was found ... three hours after the
accident.                                             
                              —New York Times

Since it cannot be accurately formatted here, I'm including a link to the full version at Poetry Foundation

Irene is hosting over at Live Your Poem (great way to live btw!).Thanks, Irene!


2 comments:

Author Amok said...

Great connection between this week's news and the poem. It's a powerful imagining. I was wondering whether Dickey tried to match the length of the poem to the time of the fall -- he gives the stewardess a tragically large amount of time to think.

Andromeda Jazmon said...

wow that is a poem. I agree, it seems she had way too much time to fall and think and shed clothes on the way down. I was just watching the stratosphere jump on YouTube and was amazed trying to imagine it. great text to life connection!