PILOT BAILS OUT

Don Blanding

All: We saw a plane go speeding by

Trailing thunder through the sky

Swifter…stronger…higher…higher…

Solo 1: A miracle of man’s desire

To match his strength against the gods

While over-soaring awesome odds

To win his freedom from the clouds.

All: The plane seemed like a living thing

With motored heart and metal wing,

With instruments of true devise

To serve as nerves and ears and eyes.

Solo 2: We might have thought, had we not known,

That by some inner power alone

This man-made eagle could have flown.

All: But there’s a brain behind the hand

That guides the plane above the land;

A Pilot-Soul behind the brain

That drives the plane through death and pain

To some far-visioned splendid goal.

Solo 3: Four things that make the perfect whole…

Plane, hand and brain…and Pilot-Soul.

Solo 4: The hand is flesh..and flesh is frail;

The throbbing motored heart might fail;

The plane might falter down the sky;

The anguished human brain might die;

All: But this we know…we dare not doubt…

With one triumphant deathless shout

The valiant Pilot-Soul bails out.