Tonight, I Fly!

I wrote this in 1997, not just as poetry, but as an ritual to enact at key times in my life, a call to rise.

Tonight, I Fly!  
By Michael Ivan Skye

Stepping out of my cave into darkness

into fierce wind and cold rain,

I face the great unknown 

beyond, above, and below.  

Gripping the edge of the cliff with my feet, 

I close my eyes to envision my flight

Never before have I flown.

My moment of birth?

My moment of death!

When I raise my wings   

I’ll be ripped from the rock
by the Winds of Challenge. 

I’ll be hurled into the great unknown. 

I…

I  AM  A  PHOENI X. 

I will not live my life in a cave.  

I will not die old without having flown. 

I will not wait for death

 -For to wait is to die.

And if to fly is to die

 -I will die to fly! 

Now is the time. 

I open my wings,

And…

Bearing my breast to the torrents of death…

I let go.