Invisible Sea

Joseph Campbell: The airplane has replaced the bird in the imagination as the symbol of the release of spirit from the bonds of earth. Hence, Invisible Sea. Part critique, part celebration of technology, these poems explore the symbolic and mythical associations of the historical moment when human beings took flight and, in a sense, became Godlike. The opening section is in the voice of Wilbur Wright as he unlocks the mysteries of human flight and, consequently, pays a heavy price. The next section examines the stories of other early aeronauts, both legendary and real, from Daedalus to John Glenn, orbiting the earth. The title poem of the collection, a serial poem, scans the major discoveries of aeronautics, beginning with Da Vinci's study of fluids and ending with trans-sonic flight.