I found the audio of James Dickey reading his famous poem Falling. It's about a stewardess falling to her death after being blown out the door of an airplane. He is most famous for his novel Deliverance, made into a movie.

Here is the link to him reading it:
http://www.hhimwich.com/hug...reading-falling.html

And the poem itself:
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/171431

You may want to have a drink or two before listening. It makes more sense that way. It's so imaginative.

i encountered this poem during my senior year in high school and it just struck me as weird.

Everything I've ever read by James Dickey has struck me as weird in one way or another.

("Paddle faster ... I hear banjos!")

[This message has been edited by Marvin McInnis (edited 12-08-2012).]

Yes, I guess. But, it is very experiential. Often he was fighting death, trying to rescue us from our ultimate fate. That is what he was doing with this piece of writing. We all got it coming, but he tries through pure imagination to imagine something greater an often that is the hope that saves us all. If you start to think like her, the fact she is Falling to her death, then you understand what he is writing. If you can find salvation in that short amount of time, then we all have a chance.

Yes, he often wrote while intoxicated, he was an alcoholic. That should take nothing from his writing. Deliverance was amazing, functioning on so many levels.

quote Originally posted by RotrexFiero: Yes, I guess. But, it is very experiential ... If you can find salvation in that short amount of time, then we all have a chance. Deliverance was amazing, functioning on so many levels.

I agree. And, yes, redemption seemed to be a recurring theme in his work.