My Mary Oliver Poems: #5 Night Flight

 As I embarked on four total flights during Thanksgiving break (Dallas to Long Beach, Long Beach to Phoenix, Phoenix to Long Beach, and Long Beach to Dallas), I found "Night Flight" to be a fitting poem that resonated with my frequent flying experiences. In this passage, Mary Oliver focuses on the views observed while aboard a flight in the darkness. As we embark on flights, we often dissociate from our current reality and become hypnotized from views among the high altitudes. By the end of the flight, however, we must reconnect with our surroundings and return to Earth's embrace as we land.

While we depart on a flight, "we see how much of earth still lies in wilderness, till terminals occur like miracles to civilize the paralyzing dark". Flights appear to be the only place that we can experience this perspective. Any other form of transportation - car, train, bike, foot - cannot expose you to such places of utter wilderness. These locations on Earth are free of roads, lights, electricity, and even people. Somehow, watching above these vast, remote pieces of land at night adds a mystical twist. Picturing the creatures and unmonitored nature reminds me of the philosophical thought: "If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?"

My favorite lines of this poem are "if miracle or accident should send us on across the upper air, how many miles, or nights, or years to go before the mind, with its huge ego paling, before the heart, all expectation spent, should read the meaning of the scene below?" Whenever I peer through the small circular window and down into the wilderness below, I too fantasize about what life is really like down there. Being at such high altitudes, viewing this scenery almost feels like an out-of-body experience. It makes me question, is it possible for us to fully comprehend the significance of the acres of unpopulated land below? I almost feel envious of the animals living there, as they know a story of the Earth that I will never understand. As one exits the plane, they check these thoughts at the door where they often stay until they board another night flight. This poem opened my eyes to all of the untouched land that lies within the crevices of the country. Up above, in the dead of night, watching these scenes fly by with music playing is what I look forward to every time I travel. I yearn to become part of the secret that these creatures are unknowingly withholding from us.