Up There - An Aviator’s Poem

Charles Hattersley kindly forwarded a poem written by his father, Charles Raymond Hattersley DFC, a Hampden pilot. The poem, reproduced below, is entitled ‘Ode to the Skies - Up There’.

Ode to the Skies - Up There
Up there we speed amongst the clouds,
Whose billowing shrouds absorb the sounds
Emitted with the smoke and flame,
From our steed - the aeroplane.

Up there we travel in between
Great towering banks of pure white screen.
Truly - castles in the air,
Whose beauty takes your breath, - up there.

Up there we sit and let our gaze
Wander in a cloudy maze,
And think, ’tis shame that beauty reigns
But seen by us, in aeroplanes.

Up there we roam in sunlit sky,
A world apart for those who fly.
Whilst men upon the surface lurk
In cold November’s fog and murk.

Up there unfolds the beauteous night,
The moon in all her glorious might;
The stars undimmed by Autumn’s mist
The distant hills by sunset kissed.

Up there and now the early dawn,
Begins to herald in the morn.

Long ere earthly man’s aware,
The rays are lighting us, up there.

Charles Raymond Hattersley DFC

Charles (aka Peter) Hattersley with a Hawker Audax.