Air travel has none of the romance of rail. In the past that might not have been so: Antoine de Saint Exupéry wrote Night Flight and Cecil Day-Lewis penned a long poem about two early aviators who flew all the way to Australia. Now, however, the antiseptic and cumbersome jets that heave themselves into the air have very little romance about them and are generally to be endured rather than celebrated. Part of the problem, of course, is the soullessness that hangs about air transport. There are so many dimensions to that, but one is language. If you listen to the way pilots and cabin crew address their passengers, you will quickly see how dry and without salience is the language they use. What if a pilot were to be a poet, and spoke poetically to the passengers?

the language of pilots

They speak with high authority,

Ailerons and wings responsive

To their touch: their words

Are functional too, but

Why, I wonder, should a pilot

Not be a poet too, and say:

“We now descend at last

Through banks of cloud,

White fields as wide

As any ocean, at least when viewed

From where we are,

At least when viewed

From this suspended point,

For it is Bernoulli’s principle

That lifts and keeps us here,

Between the patient earth below

And this empty, soaring sky.

Ladies and gentlemen, rain

Falls in distant veils;

Look from your windows

To the starboard side

Of this metal tube

We call an aircraft;

Look out there, and see

The rain, the grey-white

Shafts of rain; do you know

That those wisps of cloud

You see up above

Are crystals of ice, falling

Like gossamer? Did you

Know that? Now please

About your waists

Affix the belts; you must,

As slowly towards the earth we drop,

To land’s embrace,

(Your belts adjust);

We are a little late, but what

Are a few minutes, nothing more,

Here and there? Not much, I think.

Goodbye, and take with you

The things you brought,

Your few possessions. Goodbye

Until we meet again,

And once more we carry you,

On wings of steel, on wings of steel,

To places you would wish to go;

Goodbye, dear friends, it matters not

Whether you’re a member of

The loyalty scheme we’ve got;

We love you all, as parents

Love their children equally,

Remember that, and please come back.

Goodbye again, and cabin crew

Unbar the doors, let light be seen,

Secure what needs securing and

Cross check, whatever that might mean.

Goodbye: for soon these great engines

On landing will be silenced, as will I.”