When I first “met” Kathleen, it was through a mutual friend, Marcia Sargent, who had also written a book about flyers called “Wing Wife”. While I have not had time to read either book yet (Kathleen sent me a signed copy and I’m taking it on my trip this weekend), I do feel the camaraderie of these wonderful and creative women and I welcome our continued friendship.
Shortly after we had first spoken, Kathleen sent me a poem she had written called “The Lady Let Him Fly”. In reading it for the first time I was struck with awe that someone with an entirely different life experience about whom I knew nothing, could write a piece that so closely resembles my “Flyer Song”. This was someone I had to know!
Even now when I read through the poem I consider the collective unconscious about which Jung spoke and how “Flyer Song” first came to me in a dream; though I didn’t know any pilots nor had I ever been one or married to one. How lovely and mysterious life can be…if you let it.
The poem is below. I hope you are struck by it as much as I! Let us know what you think and if you haven’t heard my song yet, please take a moment to visit my website and watch
the “Flyer Song” video.
Kathleen can be reached through her website or by e-mail at:
Kathleen M. Rodgers
Introduction by Kathleen M. Rodgers
I wrote the poem The Lady Let Him Fly for the wife of a fighter pilot after his plane hit a mountain in Norway in 1987. The poem was published in the anthology “Because I Fly” McGraw-Hill, 2002, and in several other publications. My debut novel The Final Salute: Together, We Live On won the Silver Medal for fiction from Military Writers Society of America, 2009. Long before I started working on the novel, I wrote essays, stories, and poems in an attempt to understand the world of the fighter pilot and to share what I learned with others.
Kathleen at Book signing at Kirkland Air Force Base, Albuquerque, NM
My work has appeared in Family Circle Magazine, Military Times, Family: the magazine for military families, and innumerous publications. Stories about my novel The Final Salute have appeared in The Associated Press, USA Today,Military Times, Family magazine, Mobile Press-Register, and several other publications.
The Lady Let Him Fly
Never once
did she bind his wings;
take away his boyhood
paper-airplane-dreams;
nor try to force him
down to earth
when it was the air and sky
that beckoned his worth.
Never once
did the lady
hold him back,
or trounce his joy
for an air-to-ground-attack;
nor weep like a spoiled child
when he ventured into the blue wild.
In the background she would wait
chasing away twinges
for her fighter pilot’s fate.
With wings straight and unfurled
he and the titanium bird
lifted above the runway’s end
seeking freedom on the wind.
And when he did not return
the lady waited proud and strong
knowing he’d been – “happy all along.”
And when the aged hands of Father Time
called him home
beyond the sky,
the young flyer smiled
because the Lady Let Him Fly.
© Kathleen M. Rodgers, 1987 Alaska
Meet Kathleen Rodgers
You can buy Kathleen’s Novel, “The Final Salute: Together, We Live On” at www.thefinalsalute.com
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I know Kathleen Redgers. She is a lovely person and a talented writer. Her novel, The Final Salute is a fun, yet serious, read about the family life of a fighter pilot. Certainly worth a read.
By: Rena Taylor on January 30, 2011
at 11:29 am