The Man Who Jumped From Space
Sometimes you have to get up really high
to understand how small you really are.
I’m going home now.
–Felix Baumgartner
To behold
the curvature of the Earth
and believe
your feet could touch the ground…
From the ship
into stars
down through space
and too-thin air
a whole wide world
land and sea
continents
and sovereignties
falling free
midst feathery cloud
charging through
the barrier of sound
then a parachute
deployed at last
the magic of flight
and landing safe.
Can you teach me
how to love again?
Can you show me how to have faith
again?
Paradise is a distant planet
whose gravity I hope I’m still in
but that would require the release
of all the things pulling me away.
Weather balloons of fear and imposter
drag me toward a realm of empty
whilst the risk of falling to death
keeps me frozen on the final steps.
It’s in the girl across the bar
who I never find nerve to speak to.
It’s the open office door, the boss
who might do nothing with my problems.
It’s the novel still floundering in infancy,
files left closed, locked by writer’s block.
Yet here is a man
who leapt toward the Earth from the stratosphere
while I quiver in fear from a lie
that I will never be enough.
Here is a man
breaking the sound barrier without engine
while words I need to say die
in my throat or on my fingertips.
Here is a man
generating a sonic boom in body alone
when I can’t even make her phone ring
or utter a question for her to answer.
How can I call myself a man–
how can I promise to love and protect her
when the hardest thing I’ve ever had to say is
can I take you out to dinner?
Can you teach me
how to be brave again?
Can you show me how to be strong
again?
Can the fearful and the faithless ever find a way
to collide in realms of eternal creation?
Can a brought-low man ever pull back together
a life he long-ago thought lost?
Behold, the curvature of the Earth–
she is so beautiful, isn’t she?
I look up for guidance from the man
who jumped from space and lived.
I want to go home now.
34 thoughts on "The Man Who Jumped From Space"
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Being here is a great start 😉
So good to see your face and name, to read your words again.
47 years here, and I’m walking testimony of the “Yes.” To both and all.
Love how the second stanza feels like freefall. And it all sings of re-entry 👏
Yeah, Philip decided he could come back for this one and kicked the bug out. It was fun for a year, but it is nice to see the real name back on the screen.
I appreciate your comment and words of encouragement 😊
Philip….wow. the questions of the last three stanzas and the interplay between them is so well done as an ending ……..Bravo!!!! Nice to see you again this year.
It’s always good to be back with you and all the other great poets here. Thank you so much for the comment!
Great imaginary and well said.
Thank you very much!
This poem left me speechless! I don’t think I’ve ever read a poem as vulnerable as this about being a man. Very well done. .
Male mental, emotional, spiritual health has been a subject forcing itself into my attention lately. Figured there’s no better time than June to run with it. Thank you so much for noticing the vulnerability.
The whole poem feels like a free fall to be honest. I love the lines ‘Paradise is a distant planet whose gravity I hope I’m still in’ and ‘while words I need to say die in my throat or on my fingertips.’.
Any woman should be honored to be in your thoughts Philip, thanks for sharing!
And it was quite the rush putting it together. The topic’s been on my mind for a while now, and I’m glad to finally let it loose. Thank you so much for the comment!
I like the way you show how we can be strong one way
and weak another, life is uneven and at the end, when we go to our final home…it will always be the earth
And it’s all about sharing the strengths we do have with those who are lacking. No one is complete, but we complete each other in community. Thank you for your thoughts.
Love the conflation of the cosmic and the personal here, Philip, one reflecting the other…
The grand adventure vs. a (mostly) silent personal struggle lent itself well to the back and forth. Thank you for your comment!
I love the turn from “the girl across the bar /
who[m] I never find nerve to speak to” to the personification of the earth as a woman with “curvature.” Well-done.
Whom. No matter how meticulous I try to be, there’s always something that slips through. Oh well, lol. Thank you.
Great use of the central image…I Clive the moves from both space and the closeup view of the bar.
It honestly felt like I myself was in orbit as I was putting it together. Thank you for sharing your thoughts!
Title made me think of David Bowie. Poem is all Philip. I love how you connect the human core in all of us.
If there’s anything I know how to do, it’s burrowing deep into humanity. Thank you so much for your thoughts!
You had me at the title.
Yesssss:
the girl across the bar
who I never find nerve to speak to.
One day I will, though, if I haven’t already 😉
I love how you capture Baumgarter’s fall and then use it as a catalyst
I can’t tell you how many times I Googled Felix Baumgartner as I was putting this all together. The story hit me like a missile. Thank you so much for the comment!
Rhythmic and well-crafted work. It made my day
The story lent itself well to the telling. I’m very glad you enjoyed it!
Interesting how small we sometimes feel when measuring up to others. Very well written, bro.
But also inspirational, when you can flip that inside out and discover what you’re truly capable of. I wouldn’t change a single thing in the journey that’s brought me to this specific moment.
The first two question stanza stopped me in my tracks and made me restart the poem from the beginning to soak it in more slowly. Demanded re-reading. Bravo.
I wrote that knowing the questions would be a swerve, but your comment, amongst others describing this poem as a freefall, reveals, even to me, that stanza as the poem’s parachute, and I couldn’t be happier that you commented. Thank you so much for taking the time to read this!
It’s interesting how you showed that action-packed movement at the beginning. Then we get boots on ground for the philosophical stuff. This was a solid balance.
It makes me happy that you picked up on that, because it’s what I wanted: to charge through the motions until, wait a minute, there’s more going on here (highlighted by a previous comment) than a reader might initially expect. Yours, and all the other comments here, show me that I did good here, and I cannot be more appreciative. Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts.
Such intriguing questions in this poem. I love the descriptor, “brought-low man.”
I’m a huge fan of hyphens and what they can do with the words they connect. Thank you for sharing your thoughts!