VLVL2 (15): redtail hawk

[Keith McMullen]

385.4:  [...] "a redtail hawk in an updraft soaring above the 
ridgeline" [...]
 
Mortal Limit - Robert Penn Warren

I saw the hawk ride updraft in the sunset over Wyoming.
  It rose from coniferous darkness, past gray jags
  Of mercilessness, past whiteness, into the gloaming
  Of dream-spectral light above the lazy purity of snow-snags.

  There--west--were the Tetons. Snow-peaks would soon be
  In dark profile to break constellations. Beyond what height
  Hangs now the black speck? Beyond what range will gold eyes see
  New ranges rise to mark a last scrawl of light?

  Or, having tasted that atmosphere's thinness, does it
  Hang motionless in dying vision before
  It knows it will accept the mortal limit,
  And swing into the great circular downwardness that will restore

  The breath of earth? Of rock? Of rot? Of other such
  Items, and the darkness of whatever dream we clutch?