Skydiving! That's easy (A poem)
82With my destiny decided, I've booked and paid the fees.
If only i can overcome the trembling in my knees.
Arriving at the airfield, my first task is to train.
It seems a good idea prior to jumping out a plane
With self doubt all-consuming, my thoughts are turning black
Wondering, if i will be, the only one to crack?
At night I hear some stories, of goriness and blood
About unopened parachutes all ending with a thud!
I wake up bright and early, more training is in store
plus going over all the things we’ve learnt the day before
With my pregnant wife beside me, her strength will be my karma
If only i can prove I am her Knight in shining armour
So six of us get seated, aboard the tiny plane
I jabber on incessantly to trick my nervous brain
The plane ascends quite quickly, my poor heart skips a beat
When i hear the pilot shout, “we’re at three thousand feet!”
Fate is so unkind to me, I pluck the shortest straw
The instructor looks me in the eye and opens up the door
I stand there in the doorway, checking out the scene
Wishing that my mom is here so she can intervene
Then just below the doorway, I spy a metal peg
Where i place the foot that is attached to my left leg
I stretch my right hand out, preying it will cling
To the metal pole, that is designed to hold the wing
I wonder as I'm waiting, have I left too much to chance
Knowing that i could have worn six pairs of underpants
The instructor is a tough nut, almost twice my size
With ‘you ain’t getting back in here’, stamped between his eyes
I count down five long seconds, the instructor shouts out, go!
My wife then hears her brave Knight scream three thousand feet below
I'm tumbling round and round, like a cork flushed down a loo
Wondered if this buffeting will leave me black and blue
The Reaper isn’t happy, in fact his mood is black
Knowing that the parachute has flicked him off my back
With the terror fast receding, the view is so sublime
if heaven's only half this good, I’m getting in the line
I'm floating nice and slowly, gazing all around
Hoping that it takes a while to land down on the ground
I'm glad some bloke's invented, a system really cute
Strings to pull above one's head to steer the parachute
I’m flying like a bird, feeling full of zest
Sometimes North or South, sometimes East or West
An instructor down below, has an arrow he turns round
To guide my chute into the wind to get me on the ground
The earth is getting closer, I’m feeling rather prone
Then the fellow with the arrow plonks me in the landing zone
The grass is getting nearer, my feet touch on the ground
No thud to finish off this tale, I’ve landed safe and sound
So if you seek adventure, please take my advice
It isn't all that scary, as I'm about to do it twice?
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oh my gosh... AMAZING ! I wish I had courage like this. I really could visualize your poem :)
Wow!!! I would never jump out of a perfectly good aeroplane and fly around attached to some flimsy nylon. Well done you on two counts - bravery and great imagery.
Thanks angel, Kristen and motherbeastly. Bravery is being scared but doing it anyway and discovering it wasn't that scary after all. The jumps i did are called static line. That means the parachute opens automatically. I haven't done a tandem jump but you are attached to an instructor, so you've got your Knight in shining armour right next to you. I'm sure it would be much easier to find the courage for that type of jump and you free fall part of the way too, so it would be exhilarating. Cheers and thanks for dropping by. No pun intended.
Tremendous poem, and it all rhymes. Great work.
Keith I reckon if you were forced to speak in rhyme it would not make any difference to your ability to get it all said anyway!
Great poem. You took me skydiving, and that is as close as I want to get to it.
Thanks scarytaff, i love the challenge of rhyming poetry, sometimes it's quite difficult to fathom it all out.
Ernie, are you a man or a mouse? Come on squeak up.
I love this poem. It's like a dream to try skydiving will come true. I love this adventure, it's really pump my adrenaline. Thanks for showing us about this. Take care!
Prasetio
Now come on prasetio, you are young, fit, adventurous but obviously not quite as stupid as the author. One day you may toughen up and throw caution to the wind. At least you know a little more about what actually occurs when you have to step out of the plane. Cheers mate
I'm built for drinkin', women . . .not flyin'. Nope, not me. LOL I really enjoyed reading this. you put some effort into it. Fun stuff and kudos for flying. CC cheers
What a great poem about an incredible experience! I really enjoyed this poem. I'm afraid of heights, but if I wasn't, I would try it! Thanks for a great Hub!
Hey ralwus you look like you've been as high as a kite many times, one needs a bit of 'bottle' to plummet out of a plane, so you'd be the man for the job. Cheers
Now come on samiaali, when you look down from a plane it's not a height. It's way above that. It's more scary standing on a step ladder, but i don't think any amount of words will get you to jump out of a plane. At least you have a better idea of what it actually entails. Cheers
Why jump out of a perfectly good plane? :) I wouldn't do that if you paid me. How scary is it from 1-10??
Hi alexmita. The two static line jumps i did weren't really that scary, i'd say a six out of ten. I went rock climbing in north Wales in my early twenties and that was a ten on the terror scale. A tandem jump would be a piece of cake, eighty year old grandmothers do that so come on live a little. It's more scary confusing a sheep for a goat. Cheers mate.
That's funny! :) I just half wrote a hub on my decision to NOT do a parachute jump! I will finish it and post it soon :D
Linda.
Hey i'm looking forward to reading that hub, but now you've found out how simple it is to jump out of a plane i'll be expecting a full report. Come on it's the greatest feeling when that chute opens and the world is at your feet. Any pillock can sit in a coffee shop writing about it, now go and do it! If not i'll accept that plan b is better than nothing. Cheers.
This one had me grinning like a gooney.
The rhythm the rhyme and the wording was just spot on to carry this straight to my funny bone.
Well done.
CP
True stories are usually easier to write and this was no exception, my heavily pregnant wife did hear me scream from two and a half thousand feet but that didn't fit poetically, so i added five hundred feet under the poetic license rule. Cheers
I think that is my favorite . You gave us not only a scary begining, a compelling middle, and a blessedly relief at the end.
We also saw a love story, and a man who acknowledged his mothers care.
You took us with you all the way. And now I'm glad I don't have to add that to my list of 10-things to do...
Fantastic work,
Hey get up into that plane you, it's fun and not as scary as it sounds. I know you're busy with those sayings but imagine how a bird feels and what it's thinking soaring above the clouds and that's parachute jumping. You'd probably write a hub on the way down. Cheers.
Hmmmmmm that gives me a great idea. I may even TWEET It
You have made it sound very tempting I must say.
Well, a good story is supposed to take the reader to another level and that surely happened here. The grim reaper even came up! This was funny and also just plain fun.
Congrats. Only in some war would I take up sky-diving. The landing makes you shorter! Great poem!
You could come on a tandem bike next time i'm sky diving, then i could land on the back and off we'd go to the pub.
I would have tried skydiving once-upon-a-time, but not today...not in the future. I am sure it was an awsome rush.
The poem was also a rush, and a smile bender.
Hi Ana, it's never too late you can do a tandem jump attached to an instructor. It's only ten thousand feet up, easy. Or you can make a cup of tea with a cream biscuit.
Brilliant. I loved :
"I thought as I was waiting, I’d left too much to chance
I knew I should have brought along, six pairs of underpants2
and:
"My wife then heard, her brave Knight scream, three thousand feet below" was purely poetic and funny; following on from the Karma armour couplet.
Glad I found you.
Ian
Hello Ian, thanks for the feedback. It was a great achievement jumping out of that tiny plane and it's good amo for a poem. Cheers Keith
Very cool. (:
I'm gettin' ready to take my first "plunge" soon! Deposit fees are paid, now I just need a great day with no bad weather (we've been cancelled twice now!).
Any last minute advice? And don't tell me to kiss my A** goodbye either! That's what my hubby is for! (:
HAVE NO FEAR!
Diana
Hi Diana, If you really are going to jump, expect to be nervous, that's normal. Try your very hardest to keep your eyes open when you let go of the wing strut, it's supposed to be an awesome sight seeing the plane going off into the distance. Alas i couldn't manage to achieve that, even on my second jump. Once your chute opens, prepare yourself for a life changing experience. It's brilliant, feeling like a bird. The poem i wrote gives you a good idea of what actually happens. Good luck you will love it. Cheers.
Yes...I really am gonna jump! I'm really excited...not nervous at all...yet. (: I don't know that I will be at this point in my life. Scared, I mean. Life is way too short to be scared of such things...even at 10,000 feet! My first three jumps will be tandem anyway and then after that I'm on my own. I'm actually aiming to be a jump instructor. I've entertained the idea for years, but kept putting it off for one reason or another...but now...I'm done waiting. It's time to fly!
It also helps to not be afraid of dying. I figure if it's our time to go, we're gonna go no matter how much we try to prevent it by staying "safe" at home. I'd rather live well and play hard!
Thanks for the tips, Keith.
I'll definately be keeping my eyes open, even if I have to use clothes pins!
Take care, be blessed and stay safe... ...as safe as you can while jumping out of airplanes!
Diana
I haven't done a tandem jump, but it would be easy having a trained instructor strapped to you. With the static line jump i did you have that, what if something goes wrong feeling, and there is only you there to fix it. I wasn't really scared, and once the chute opened I was in heaven and not a bit scared.
The fellow i was with got spooked and landed incorrectly about a kilometer from the landing zone and was lucky there was an empty field to get dragged along. You will love it, but maybe you will be slightly nervous when you do that fourth jump. Good luck though, there's no looking back.
You're right...It IS easier to look forward to knowing you'll have a highly trained instructor strapped to your back.
I'll let ya know how the fourth jump goes and if I peed myself or not! hee hee (:
I still can't wait though.
Thanks Keith
Diana
p.s. That poor guy who got dragged in a field a kilometer away from the zone? Must've been some walk back carrying/dragging a chute! I hope they at least sent a vehicle for him!
I can't really remember, but he would have been struggling with his tail between his legs.
hee hee (:
Although...now that I think about it, a static jump for your very first time (and second) would be a way more scary prospect than a tandem. Having to rely on only your newly trained and somewhat inexperienced self to save your own butt if something goes wrong...okay okay...I admit I'd be a bit...or a LOT...nervous! (:
I'd still go through with it though. Like you had said earlier about flying like a bird... ...well, I wanna see what THEY get to see!
Thanks, Keith, for the tips and encouragement!
I'll keep ya posted when I finally take my first jump!
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!!!!
Blue Skies!
Diana
The sky diving was easy, wait till you try rock climbing!
Slow down, slow down! Rock climbing? Let me try skydiving first! (: Not sure my legs can handle rock climbing...maybe if it was a really short rock.
tee hee (:
angel115707 Level 2 Commenter 19 months ago
Awesome..LOL you did a really good job of imagery...could see it! I always wanted to try it, I had an uncle who used to do it in the army all the time, hopefully I can one day!