From the recording Singles
Have you ever seen hawk migration? Once I was in a mountain meadow playing old-time tunes on a foggy Sunday morning. As the fog dissipated we could saw a thick stream of hawks flowing through the gap. Where I live, the peak of fall migration is usually mid-September. Some of the mountain gaps will have thousands of hawks ride through in a single day. Cool to watch them rise on the updrafts in a swirling kettle, getting easy altitude so they can glide downward for miles.
Kinda wish I could do that, too.
Lyrics
A Kettle of Hawks
1
There's a kettle of hawks gliding out on the current winding up off the ridge
Paying no heed at all to the gravity whirlwind binding me to this ledge
Should I climb to the peak or fall to the river?
Only know I can't keep on stalling forever
There's a kettle of hawks
2
When the migrants have flown to their country off-season we'll be left here alone
Wandring woods overgrown hunting traces of reason underneath every stone
Will they rise to our hearts or fall to our fingers?
Take the risk of new start in the friendship of strangers?
When the migrants have flown
I'm a little bit slow at picking up subtlety
And you just never know if the signals get through to me
Tell it straight to my spirit
Maybe somehow I'll hear it
I'm a little bit slow at picking up subtlety
And you just never know if the signals get through to me
Tell it straight to my spirit
Maybe somehow I'll hear it
3
You don't have any wings; it's a muscular scramble winding up off the ledge
Weaving networks beneath the red spruce and the brambles binding roots to this ridge
Should you climb to the peak or fall to the river?
Only know you can't keep on stalling forever
You don't have any wings
There's a kettle of hawks
(c)Dave Nealon September 29, 2023