Frosted over with power
What is the weight of death
What’s the weight of life
Who knows, except that both get lighter—
When a hawk circles over.
Another close friend just died and hawks are visiting: last Friday, one flew over the old Port Authority Building (now Google’s) in Chelsea, on its way toward the river; yesterday, a hawk flew up—lofting up a shrug further, to land and perch on the Fort Greene radio tower.
Hawks kill me: I love them, as life
Despite death—
A hawk slightly opening its beak
Still on a high branch—
What the mouse knew.
Grey-bellied, Tiny, Semi-collared, White-breasted, Plain-breasted, Red-shouldered, Rufous-thighed, Long-tailed; Northern Flinty, Crested, Smawky, Red-chested, White-bellied, Grey-headed, Chestnut-shouldered, Dark chanting, Eastern chanting; Spot-tailed, Black, Chestnut-flanked, Imitator, Red-thighed, Little, Dwarf, Rufous-necked, Collared, Vinous-breasted, Slaty-mantled: Hawks.
The smallest hawk in North America is the Sharp-shinned Hawk.
Hawks have vision several times as sharp as ours.
Hawks will not pick out hawks’ eyes.
(Turkish Proverb)
From a New Age website: If a hawk has soared into your life, you require a higher perspective. You need to see the details of what is going on and look at the bigger picture. Take a look at your situation from above.
View from above? What would a hawk make of all my stuff? Trappings, a falconer’s hoods, traps.
Nina Simone and Humphrey Bogart both had some hawk in them.
Fairy tale with hawk:
Once upon a time there was an orphan nestling: a hunter had killed its parents. At the top of a tall tree, alone, hungry, angry, it realized it was time to fly. “I’m flying!” it exulted, as it plunged, flapping, down to the forest floor. “I flew!” it told the pinecones and pine needles, which had softened his fall. And to the small nest of baby mice it raked open, it exclaimed: “I soared!”
Red-tailed Hawks are legally protected in North America—even collecting their feathers is against the law.
Girl hawks are bigger than boy hawks. Mated Red-tailed Hawks hunt together, and they take advantage of forest fires, catching animals as they run away from the blaze. Red-tailed Hawks are monogamous: why does that amaze me?
Hawk eggs are bluish-white with brown spots: nestlings are born altricial (naked, blind and helpless). Hawks, however, are fast in every way: after hatching, the young hawks “grow up” to full size in a month. And their yellowish eyes darken to reddish-brown as they mature.
Last Sunday I was walking down Broadway in the 90s and between tall buildings I spotted a hawk soaring west and immediately saw three pigeons break to the east.
I see more and more hawks
Lofty hawks
There doesn’t seem to be an end
Their feathers ruffle up
They smell of frost
Their talons sparkle
Their beaks gleam
And you can see in their eyes
No fear, just
Black water hit by the sun
Hawks are increasing
So there can’t be an end
– BKE
Read more from BKE’s Hawk Series here and here.
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