I had a teaching colleague, older than I was, who trained
as a pilot for the war. Fortunately that was over before he had
to fly a mission. I guess he was relieved, although he never
said so. An affable, able man, but one who lacked professional
ambition. He liked to sit by windows so he could see the sky.
And even in the midst of timetable or syllabus deliberations
he would look away, look up, and if the sun was there in greeting
he would smile to himself and say—blue sky situation emerging.
Taken with kind permission from the wonderful new collection of poems Beyond the Border by Owen Marshall (Quentin Wilson Publishing, $30), available in bookstores nationwide. Asked by the NZ Booklovers site, “If there were a soundtrack to accompany the poems, what would you choose?” he selected ‘Country Roads’ by John Denver and ‘Only The Lonely’ by Roy Orbison.
