The Weight of Flight

What is the work of inhabiting flight?

The question begs in the mechanics that make it so

In the Lift, the drag… and thrust

We dip, we land, and relaunch

The work is only one part about soaring

and would be nothing without weight

When there is scanning terra firma

for posture, for food

When there is nostalgia for touching

anything at all

There is coming down for prayer

and wishing you were here

To kneel before this

The one question, the next verse

How do we break for adoration

amid prayer - the flash of flight

Before the involuntary momentum

That lifted us in origin

That recharges organically

Is in the sensation of taking off?

Images of the Hirundus Rustica are Keane’s work @barganews

The Hirundus Rustica, La Rondine, The Barn Swallow, is the chosen symbol of Traveling Native because of its elegant flight patterns and its graceful arrival, departure, and return to a place called home.

The Barn Swallow is native in all biogeographic regions except for Australia and Antartica. It is the sign of spring in Italy as the swallows migrate north from Africa in return to their nests built in former warm seasons. The Traveling Native becomes part of the scenery wherever it goes.