In the Air

Above the Clouds invites you to celebrate National Poetry month! As we await clearance to take to the skies, lets get creative in using poetry to share ATC’s special brand of joy and hope! Throughout the month of April, we welcome your stories, poems, and messages of hope in text, art, video, music, and, of course, rap. Below is one of our favorite poems titled “In the Air” from an ATC Dream Flyer. Nick flew with us in 2013 and is currently a computer science major at Westfield State.

“In the air, I am free. In the air, there is much more to see.
On the ground, I am bound. As I look up, people look down.
Dream Flight. Is it the dream of flight, or the flight of a dream?
From where I sat, the sky appeared gray and foreboding.
Perhaps my freedom should be postponed for another day?
The sky, like life, is not always what is seems;
We pushed on through the clouds and greeted the sun’s shining beams.
Mind racing, hands trembling, I traded wheels for wings.
Bumping, jerking, vibrating disappeared with the gentle pressure of
overcoming Earth’s gravity.
The racing of the engine echoed the racing of my heart, both straining to escape
their confines.
The barriers, the challenges, the ridicule, the pain melted away as the journey
began.
All the stairs, all the difficulty, it would disappear.
The controls in hand, I became the master of my movements, the ruler of my
rambling. Apprehension turned to delight, and then to serenity as we sliced
through clouds and pierced sunbeams.
In the air, I can see the world
On the ground, I can only see my town.
In the air, I can go anywhere.
On the ground, I can’t go there.
In the air, there’s not a care.
On the ground, there’s no one around.
In the air, I am free.
In the air, I am ME”

—Nicholas Coleman