April 12, 2007: This Heavy Craft, P.K. Page
This Heavy Craft
P.K. Page
The wax has melted
but the dream of flight
persists.
I, Icarus, though grounded
in my flesh
have one bright section in me
where a bird
night after starry night
while I’m asleep
unfolds its phantom wings
and practices.
[The Icarus myth is a subject poets looove — I bet you could easily publish a whole collection of Icarus poems. This one’s a little less well-known, I think, and I like it for its brevity and how it makes Icarus the speaker, not just a subject for someone else to talk about.]
More like this:
Landscape with the Fall of Icarus, William Carlos Williams
Failing and Flying, Jack Gilbert
Icarus, Christine Hemp
Musee des Beaux Arts, W.H. Auden
A year ago: Late Ripeness, Czeslaw Milosz
Two years ago: A Martian Sends A Postcard Home, Craig Raine
