Leonardo’s Flying Machine

(as seen modeled at Montreal Museum)

by Katherine L. Gordon

The longing overwhelmed me

when I saw it,

as it must have possessed Leonardo,

the time-traveler whose spirit could leap

outside the confines of the medieval mind

to fly into a universe of thought,

where man could soar with birds

in a light canvas-on-wood

swallow-tailed, one–with–the–air frame,

catch the updraft

glide over green spaces

close the eyes and inhabit the wind.

He comes through the centuries

as I touch his machine

built to tantalize the earth-bound.

I want to devour the grace,

the hurtful beauty

of a glider born

to bridge not only man and bird,

but free the soul,

lift you over the torpid,

no fire, no sound,

a kite into eternity.

* * * * *

Katherine L. Gordon is a rural Ontario poet, publisher, judge, editor and reviewer, working to promote the voices of women poets around the world, as they are now flowering into acclaim.  She has many books, chapbooks, anthologies and collaborations with fine contemporaries whose work inspires her.  Her poems have been translated and awarded internationally.  Latest book: Piping at the End of Days, Valley Press.