Touching the Face of God

Oh! I have slipped
the surly bonds of earth
put out my hand
and touched the face of God.

From “High Flight”
By John Gillespie Magee Jr.

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There are gilded moments 
when obstacles fall away, 
and an idea, a sensation,

a line of poetry arrives
in purest form. You must 
be ready to catch that gift 

of molten glass, and blow 
it into the shape it was 
destined to be, the graceful  

arm of a handcrafted 
mahogany chair, a brightly 
tufted hummingbird painted 

on a swath of sumptuous 
silk, a forkful of summer’s
first blueberriest pie,

or a line of verse so true
it wakes a part of you
that had fallen asleep.

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Adelaide, Issue 66, July 2024

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