Mississauga’s Kite Festival and Kite poem and film

Leonardo’s Flying Machine by Katherine L. Gordon from 《After Midnight/子夜过后》

The longing overwhelmed me
when I saw it,
as it must have possessed Leonardo,
the time-traveller whose spirit could leap
outside the confines of the medieval mind
to fly into a universe of thought,
where man could soar with birds
in a light canvas on wood
swallow-tailed, one-with-the-air frame,
catch the updraft
glide over green spaces
close the eyes
and inhabit the wind.
He comes through the centuries
as I touch his machine
built to tantalize the earth-bound.
I want to devour the grace,
the hurtful beauty
of a glider born
to bridge not only man and bird
but free the soul,
lift you over the torpid…
no fire, no sound,
a kite into eternity.