Flying Manual For Poets
This is meant to be a manual, a set of sober instruction
that you can use, once you get past this lengthy introduction,
as a “how to” for learning to feel what it feels like when you fly,
and to free your earthbound body so you can scamper in the sky.
This is not meant as metaphor of how to set your soul to soar,
nor as a poor poetic device, but rather some poet-to-poet advice.
The rhyme and rhythm schemes here are, to be kind, most inconsistent.
Please take the advice seriously, though; it will work if you’re persistent.
I don’t mean to imply that you can actually fly for real,
though if you could that would be terrific.
What I do mean is that you can actually feel
what flying feels like, in specific.
Not through artificial aids like gliders, planes or parachutes,
jetpacks, drugs, or even one of those insane free fall wing suits.
The latter would likely leave the majority of us in screams.
What I recommend is that you use the power of your dreams.
Dreams?! Stay with me one more moment if that makes you disappointed,
and I know that this description is too long and too disjointed.
But the thing about dreams is they feel real, at least while you are dreaming.
Just think about that hot one that left your breathless body steaming.
(Too bad you had to wake up, but that’s why you remembered it;
good thing your mate didn’t notice or they may have dismembered it.)
The trick is that you can train your brain to dream that you are flying.
And much unlike a wing suit there is little chance of dying.
Some say that you can hack your dreams when you lay down in your bed;
that never worked for me but I found a better way instead:
Find a way of simulating flight during the day.
For most it works to float around a pool in guided play.
Just relax and float or swim for hours without care,
weightless you can gently “fly” as if you’re in the air.
It’s like when you drive for many hours and then you go to bed
and you still see the highway going by inside your head.
Same type of thing can happen when you float long in a pool,
Then when you dream you’re flying it is really, really cool.
Now that you know the method we can consider variations:
Snorkeling and scuba are the most effective simulations,
and very pleasant when combined with tropical vacations.
I would avoid most of the other mainstream fun flotations
(such as vertical wind tunnels);
they offer some elations but they lack real flight sensations
(feels like falling inside funnels).
It takes confidence and courage for the first time that you leap
off of a cliff or building to go soaring in your sleep.
Warning: do not try this if you have somnambulism,
I cannot be responsible for your careless cataclysm.
To overcome initial fear, perhaps read Erica Jong,
then when you try, you’ll surely fly, it likely won’t take long.
Soon high above city you will hover happily,
gazing down upon its denizens gaping up with jealousy.
Your own results will likely vary; some fly fast and some fly slow.
Your legs may kick but it’s not scary, in fact that’s how you’ll know
it was the pool that primed your brain for some super late-night soaring,
which I can guarantee you’ll never find the least bit boring.
So, if you want to try it, go ahead and be my guest.
It’s all I’ve got to give in this -- my last poetry contest.
I think that some will thank me, and I have one last request:
please provide some feedback from your actual faux flights;
you can post them here as comments on this Poetry Soup website.
July 17, 2020
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