In 1971,shortly after getting my pilots license I came across this article in an aviation publication. I was struck by it. Somewhere in my house I have it on a plaque. John G. Gillespie Jr. was an Anglo-American RCAF pilot who was killed during WWII in England. He had trained not far from here at St. Catherines Ontario. — for more information, click on the image.

John Gillespie Magee

High Flight

John Gillespie Magee Jr.

(9 June 1922 - 11 December 1941)

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 wind-swept heights with easy grace.
Where never lark, or ever 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.