Whimsical Expectations

After days brim with pomp and circumstance,
Autumn skedaddles, takes leave quietly.
Wildlands unwind, roll dice on the chance
Jack Frost falls short of his notoriety

© Ilija Lukić 2025

Whimsical Expectations

Lower Haw River Trail near Bynum NC

A Return To Monet's Garden

I’ve long been inspired by the 19th-century impressionism art movement, characterized by paintings that capture the artist’s immediate response to a dynamic moment in time—often “en plein air” everyday, subject matter. Working outdoors artists endeavored to capture the fleeting effects of light on color with texture created by visible brush stokes, to help convey a sense of movement and atmosphere. 

In a series of photographic images, I humbly pay homage to artists like Claude Monet—the quintessential landscape impressionist— by editing and processing some of my pictures to emulate his painterly style.

I seek to unfold the tapestry of my afternoon adventure on the Lower Haw River Trail through a filter dipped in impressionist nostalgia. I want to color my heart’s journey through emphasis on light, color, movement, mood and emotions…and, hopefully express what my heart experienced through sensory inputs at the moment I released that camera shutter. 

© Ilija Lukić 2025

A Return To Monet's Garden

Finding My Muse

As I meander along becalmed lake waters,

Wrapped in silence and lost in reverie,

An errant breeze asks ripples of water

To break gently across my path…and nudge

The tranquil confines of introspection

That hold captive my imagination,

To release mindful lines of poetry

With each breath and ev’ry beat of my heart.

© Ilija Lukić 2025

Finding My Muse

Cooper's Cove on Jordan Lake NC

Water Of Life

When woes beset your heart

As fierce rivers of life

Test your immortal soul,

Just lean into God’s grace—

Sacred water of life—

And embrace said struggles

With renewed vigor and faith.

© Ilija Lukić 2025

Water Of Life

Cathedral Grove on Seaforth Peninsula at Jordan Lake NC

Dreamtime

Spinning world curbs heart

Autumn’s warm hues rouse dreamtime

Heart finds its true north

Often overwhelming, the fast-paced and chaotic nature of living in the digital age curbs emotional well-being and restrains true self-awareness.

Connecting with nature in autumn during her time of transition emboldens letting go of useless habits, worn out ideas and futile relationships. Furthermore, likening autumnal turning of the leaves to embracing inevitable changes and adaptations in the human condition spills mindful self-examination into dreamtime—that soul-searching journey inward to understand your essence—to become who you truly are.

© Ilija Lukić 2025

Dreamtime

Lower Haw River Trail near Bynum NC

Season Of Change

Winds of change bode bliss

Heart discards earthly burdens

Soul soars in rapture

© Ilija Lukić 2025

Season Of Change

Seaforth Peninsula on Jordan Lake NC

Timeless Journey

Joy flows from free will

God’s grace paves timeless journey

Mind the long road home

© Ilija Lukić 2025

Timeless Journey

Seaforth Peninsula spit on Jordan Lake NC

Eternity Unchained

The faint-hearted choose sitting on the fence,

While affairs of man crush their divine side.

When said threads of life and time converge, play offense…

Life is short, eternity beckons, decide.

© Ilija Lukić 2025

Eternity Unchained

Cooper's Cove at Seaforth Peninsula on Jordan Lake NC

Nature's Pulse

Summer wanes humbly

Autumn crawls in with fanfare

Soul feels nature’s pulse

© Ilija Lukić 2025

Summer Leftovers

Seaforth Beach on Jordan Lake NC

Letting Go

Autumn’s vibrant letting go eases hearts

And bespeaks release from shackles of strife

Foolishly revered on vile social ramparts.

Though rubbish, strife hinders good will in life.

© Ilija Lukic 2025

Letting Go

Autumn colors in Pittsboro NC

Tranquility Reborn

These days humankind breathes a collective sigh

And gives good-natured hearts free rein worldwide,

To dance once more just like a butterfly,

Rapt with joy, on summer’s flowered hillside.

© Ilija Lukić 2025

Tranquility Reborn

Haw River near Bynum NC

Dream Weaver

Cast not aside mindful twilight thinkers,

Night owls who ruminate, burn midnight oil,

For life’s journey requires dream weavers

To help alleviate life’s mortal coil. 

© Ilija Lukić 2025

Dream Weaver

Self-portrait

Second Spring

Turning of leaves wakes memories of spring.

Surge of red hues and gay shades of amber

Encourage wracked hearts to one final fling,

Before Earth realms embrace winter slumber.

© Ilija Lukić 2025

Wistful Blues

Hydrangea

            Daughter Of Elysium
                Honeysuckle

Spring Fling

Pollinator garden at Pittsboro Market NC

Haunted Reverie

Lakeside reverie haunted by flashback

To elemental chaos wrought by storms,

Whose fearsome wake dropped telltale beach wrack—

Ephemeral art beneath insect swarms.

© Ilija Lukić 25

Two months after mid-July flash flooding—when lake waters rushed into shoreline woodlands before settling some ten feet above current levels—Mother Nature tries her best to settle into a laid-back autumn mood. The rust-colored tinge on trees left by muddy water bespeaks the high-water mark.

Haunted Reverie

Seaforth Peninsula on Jordan Lake NC

Wholeness Of Heart

When goodness and love seem scarce far and wide

And evil boastfully rears its head,

Let the better angels within us guide

Bold wholeness of heart as a nation, instead.

© Ilija Lukić 2025

A nation with a wholeness of heart, built on muddled perfection of shared values rooted in mutual respect and social cohesion, endures the test of time.

Muddled Perfection

Hostas in autumn regalia

Without Regret

Make time to pause at life’s rockbound river,

Turn heart and soul to mindful reverie,

Wade into what-ifs and might-have-beens…linger,

But, regret naught, in light of life’s brevity.

© Ilija Lukić 2025

Without Regret

Along Lower Haw River Trail near Bynum NC

Autumn In Waiting

As the sun briefly ducks behind loose cloud cover, filtered light helps to accentuate the warm hues of early autumn foliage along rocky banks and drought-weary flows of the Haw River near Bynum NC. A tell-tale russet coloration on vegetation next to the river course is a grim reminder of the muddy torrents of early summer floodwaters. The river surged some 25 feet above current levels, ripped century-old trees from their bouldered river bank perches and shaped new channels.

The river and its environs are a metaphor of life. I close eyes and open my heart to its teachings. Go with the flow it gurgles, persist in the face of inevitable change…for only a bold heart will successfully navigate life’s rapids.

© Ilija Lukić 2025

Autumn In Waiting

Haw River near Bynum NC

Illusory Tranquility

Our "100 Days of Summer" end in unhurried albeit illusory tranquility here in the Carolinas. Long, sweltering Dog Days of Summer have given way to near fall-like sunrise-to-sunset temperatures. Elderberry bushes are in full bloom and fill late summer airs with pleasant aromas. However, deepening drought conditions linger.

Vegetation is in survival mode and early leaf fall bespeaks dire conditions. Where early summer floodwaters on the Haw River wreaked havoc more than a month ago, rock-strewn riverbeds challenge meager flows.

© Ilija Lukić 2025

Unhurried Tranquility

Elderberry Splash

Rock-Ribbed Serenity

Haw River near Bynum NC

Heaven's Long Silence

While hot summer days take pause, hold their breath,

Parched trees survive on memories of rain.

Their thirsty pleas bemoan Earth’s dance of death

And pine for angel tears to end drought’s reign.

© Ilija Lukić 2025

Heaven's Long Silence

Jordan Lake NC (view from ranger station lookout)

Immortality

Immortality flows…by divine grace…

From essence muddled by a life well-lived.

Distilled by resolute human heart

And given wing into eternity

By man’s everlasting soul,

Our triumphs and backwash in pursuit

Of meaning and purpose in daily life

Become etched onto eternal pages

Of collective consciousness and legend.

In said timeless realm, in perpetuity,

Mortals realize immortality.

© Ilija Lukić 2025

Divine Grace

(photo-impressionism)