"High Flight" by John Gillespie Magee, Jr.

In honor of the one-year anniversary of the loss of the Space Shuttle Columbia:

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 windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, nor even eagle flew.
And while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
The high, untrespassed sanctity of space ...
... put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

Magee was killed in action, December 1941.

Note: this was posted using backdate a couple of weeks after the actual day. My surgery caused me to overlook the anniversary.