Winter Repose

'Tis time, dim autumn lights and let hearts turn to winter repose.

© Ilija Lukić 2017

Winter Repose

Infinitude

Footfalls rustle at death’s door

Sunbeams reveal time without end

Infinitude beckons inner self

© Ilija Lukić 2017

Infinitude
(Old Rock Spring Baptist Church at historic Chatham County cemetery, Pittsboro NC USA)

Shadowless Pulchritude

Chilled hush enfolds misty woodland,

Feathered summer guests have gone,

Quietude reigns until raucous raven band

Declares any heaviness of heart undone.

Rejoice, they squawk, adorned in gold,

Delight in crimson splash on nearby ridge,

Discover frosted fields in realm age-old

And lovers in embrace on covered bridge.

Treasure promises of abundant spring,

Recall midsummer lightning bug romance,

Hold dear Harvest Moon merrymaking

And mindful surrender of self to life's dance.

Fear not, take wing in shadowless silence, alas,

Pulchritude endures in withered leaf and grass.

© Ilija Lukić 2017

Shadowless Silence

Boulder Gardens

In daydreams I meander

Stony-rough banks of river wild,

Where reverie brings to mind

Turbulent stretches of water

And stately boulder gardens

In tawny flows of Adam’s ale.

I muse over single droplet

Caught in spirited whitewater,

Destined for sandy shore

And frothy waves on briny deep.

Then comes eleventh hour

Of my midsummer daydreams. 

I pause and ponder said droplet

On its fateful quest to know its place

In aforesaid chaos of risky water worlds,

Torn between comfort in age-old seaways

And ethereal mists below starlit skies

Awash in first light hues.

In the end, its place was always

Alongside boulder gardens

In restful shade of sycamores

Rooted to banks of river wild.

© Ilija Lukić 2017

Rockbound Harmony
(Haw River late-September east of Pittsboro NC USA)

Fall Melodies

Summer takes leave as fall gains dominion,

Yes, once a year these old friends compete

Amid cherished heyday of mutual admiration

Among vast woodland and paved city street.

Neither boasts, instead each resounds airily

With plainsong of joy in colors most sublime,

Until melodies become memories of serenity

Composed upon never-ending pages of time.

© Ilija Lukić 2017

Fall Melodies
(Mary Hayes Park, Pittsboro NC USA)

Wisdom Of The Wood

Every tree embodies timely verses of poetry,

Every trunk holds aloft sage insights, behold,

How every wink of sunlight amid said artistry

Opens one elusive portal to wisdom untold.

© Ilija Lukić 2017

Wisdom Of The Wood
(Riparian woodlands at Lake Jordan, North Carolina USA)

Harmonious Chaos

Autumn arrives shrouded in mists and drizzle. The only drawback to exhilarating hikes on wooded trails are the threads of spider silk that span the passage. My canine companion Cooper couldn't care less. While I enjoy nature's artistry he chases squirrels and crows and inspects decaying tree skeletons, casualties of summer storms. Sixty-degree temperatures and lively breezes whisper songs of autumn, tussle pine tops and raise pleasant woodland aromas off spent summer splendor now carpeting the forest floor. By nightfall forces at work in windblown pine straw cast across city sidewalks intrude upon starlit skies and spawn tornado warnings across the Piedmont Plateau and eastward.

© Ilija Lukić 2017

Woodland Scout
(Cooper in Mary Holmes Park near Pittsboro NC USA)

Harmonious Chaos
(Photo-Impressionism)

Life Well-Lived

Lean into the age-old mysteries called life,
Let turmoil test your mettle unconstrained,
Then notice how life well-lived is balance--
An artful juggling of satisfaction and regret.

© Ilija Lukić 2017

Rockbound Reverie

Wishful Thinking

Divine Intervention

© Ilija Lukić 2017

Divine Intervention
(Haw River near Bynum, North Carolina USA)

Primordial Light

An infinite universe cradles my essence

Among whispers of the sacred and divine.
Temporal boundaries become meaningless.
I’m born-again at the hand of primordial Light.

© Ilija Lukić 2017

Primordial Essence
(August 21, 2017 solar eclipse over Pittsboro, North Carolina USA)

Farewell To Summer

Late daylight grows dim over sleepy river wild

Where pinking skies aloft encourage quietude,

While whispers among carefree rush of waters

Scribe elegant poetry upon the liquid amber.

They speak of vernal snowmelt rhapsodies,

Touch on miserable dog days of summer past,

Hint at gelid flows and ice mansions of winter

And propose gaiety at coming autumn dance.

They bring up rock-strewn cataracts upstream,

Mention echoes of children at cool waterholes,

Make allusion to kinship of man and waterfowl

Fishing in boulder gardens along reedy banks.

My heart rejoices in said farewell to summer.

My soul finds bliss in ethereal touch of eternity.

© Ilija Lukić 2017

Autumn Whispers
(Haw River near Bynum, North Carolina USA)

Life Force

While many people in our country experience a full solar eclipse, the Moon's shadow manages to cover about 93% of the sun over Pittsboro, North Carolina. Families, friends, even strangers gather to share this rare primordial occurrence. As twilight settles over our neighborhood, crescent-shaped light filters through tree foliage and casts unusual shadows onto surfaces. The leaves serve as an array of pinhole cameras in projecting the sun's crescent sliver onto a concrete sidewalk at our home. These amazing images away from the main event add an air of spiritual allegory. In flights of imagination we bridge millennia and find kindred humans in awe of similar celestial wonder.

© Ilija Lukić 2017

Life Force
(Solar eclipse drama over Pittsboro, North Carolina USA)

Heliotrope

Oriental Escapade

Divine Light

Last light of day still holds sway,

As full Moon hovers aloft Staked Plain

And prairie straw thirsts for moonlight hues.

My heart takes wing, oh, vision of eternity.

My soul enraptured whispers hallelujah—

Purified by eventide’s divine poetry of light

© Ilija Lukić 2017

Divine Light
(Moonrise over Llano Estacado north of Clovis, New Mexico USA)

Rainbow Covenant

The Dog Days of Summer are upon us. Sultry heat indexes in the triple digits and scarce rainfall are the rule. Today late-afternoon thunderstorms pour Heaven's tears across the parched land and bring relief. A fleeting rainbow seals the deal.

The envious tempest grumbles
Honeyed rumors of discontent
With the remindful, fleeting arch
Over its subsiding murky chaos;
Yet, takes heart in such alliance
Of heavenly tears and sunlight,
For it renews a blessed covenant,
That of the temporal with divine.

© Ilija Lukić 2017

Heavenly Tears
(Pale Evening Primrose)

Terraglyph Lore - Osa Hini

Terraglyphs are tiny ridges of wet soil pushed to the surface by ground beetle larvae activity after rains on the Llano Estacado tablelands. They resemble whimsical figures and indecipherable calligraphy. Let’s indulge in creating a myth. Let’s conjure a story first spoken in hushed and reverend awe among native American cultures of the Southern Great Plains.

Imagine a Comanche boy on the precipice of manhood. This fourth day of his first vision quest he remains quietly humble before the Great Spirit. It’s an unusually cold mid-summer day on the plain. He shivers in the aftermath of a passing thunderstorm. In the foggy clarity induced by a four-day fast, he observes the damp earth in his camp move almost imperceptibly. He mutters, “osa hini…osa hini…what is that?” A guardian spirit soon reveals itself and asks raven to teach the boy several songs, but also draws symbols of hope upon the terra cotta skin of Earth Mother. “What will I call you when I tell the medicine man about you,” the boy asks? The spirit chuckles and says, “you came by my power when you implored me with osa hini. That will be my name.” The boy thanks the spirit and returns to his band and family with medicine power—what his people call puha. That evening at a camp fire gathering he makes time to sing the spirit’s admonitions to the People.

“Hear me, these are the words brought to me on wings of raven and now first spoken to you the ancient People of the plains. You have seen the signs on the face of Earth Mother after sky lakes soothe her burnt countenance with rain. From this day forward we will respect and call them osa hini; for they are messages written by tami and nami—the younger brothers and sisters of ground beetles—summoned by the Great Spirit. They are joyful promises of better days and hunts ahead. Let all who encounter the signs refrain from disturbing the messages of things to come—lest all manner of calamity and torment befalls the People.”

Eventually terraglyph lore makes its way into the roughhewn lives of white settlers and weatherbeaten cowboys huddled around cattle drive camp fires on the vast grasslands. Stories persist in oral traditions of people who cast shadows onto the plains.

© Ilija Lukić 2017

Osa Hini - What Is That?

Message Of Hope
(Ground beetle larvae calligraphy on Llano Estacado of New Mexico)

Bearing Gifts - Promises Of Better Days

Signs - Admonitions To The People

Love's Crossroads

All crossroads in love call for resolve,

Yet faint-hearted souls hem and haw

And day by day avoid that first step,

Conceding beds of roses to the bold.

Take heart travelers on the spiral of life,

Yes, hard-won passages set hearts afire.

Each falter and stumble hones life skills

For pursuit of daunting exploits of desire.

© Ilija Lukić 2017

Life's Crossroads
(On the Llano Estacado east of Clovis, New Mexico)

Step Into The Light

Life is a finite journey into everlasting light--

An array of moments on the tapestry of time.

Let the good write memories upon your heart--

Your unique footfalls across muddy fields of life.

© Ilija Lukić 2017

Step Into The Light

Heart Song

When chasing rainbows in your life,

Persevere down road less traveled

And you’ll discover that pot of gold

Has all along been your own heart.

That being so, when odyssey ends,

Put right all troubles born of regret

And resolve to live your passions

With all your heart until last breath.

© Ilija Lukić 2017

Life After The Flood
(Sawtooth Daisies and alluvium after thunderstorm runoff near Clovis, New Mexico USA)

Prairie Melodies

Discover music in windswept prairie straw,

Hear echoes of solitude in hawk's call on high,

Find repose in raindrops battering red mesa

And rhapsodies of wind in tenacious piñon stand.

Lend ear to crescendo of flowers at playa shore,

Then consider prairie melodies with mindfulness.

Let said age-old harmonies reach into your heart

And connect your spirit to songs of the universe.

© Ilija Lukić 2017

Age-old Melodies
(Cooper on the Llano near Clovis, New Mexico USA)

Yippie-Kay-Yay!

For tried-and-true frolic with fleet pronghorn

Get into waist-deep prairie on a cloudy day,

Respect serpent in grass also cactus thorn,

Then, loose heart and soul, yippie kay-yay!

© Ilija Lukić 2017

Spirituality

Spirituality gives mankind the wisdom to control the power of science.

© Ilija Lukić 2017

Adobe Prayers
(Santuario San José De La Gracia in Las Trampas, New Mexico USA)

Ravages Of Drought

With Route 66 and Tucumcari NM in the rear view mirror, I head south into the broad Quay Valley towards the meandering northern escarpment of the Llano Estacado tablelands. I pause at what appear to be forsaken structures and windmill with stock tank. Northerly winds raise billows of dust. Diffused light from the milky skies softens ravages of time and drought on the land and motley reminders of human inroads into these badlands. I lend ear and heart to the whispers of wind in the withered canopies of tree skeletons. Songs of Native Americans in pursuit of bison herds, sighs of conquistadores in search of water holes and prayers of white setters striving to eke out an existence drift on the dust-laden winds sweeping the rugged Canadian River Plain.

© Ilija Lukić 2017

Ravages Of Drought
(Off Highway 209 near Quay, New Mexico USA)

Quest For Serenity

While sunset spills awesome wonder

‘Cross calm expanse of bounding main,

Once emerald waves upon briny deep

Come to be joyful, amber ripples of Light

In search of portals within human hearts

And harried souls on quests for serenity. 

© Ilija Lukić 2017 

Divine Grace

Aye, mankind holds dear vernal essence,

While Mother Earth abounds with renewal,

When river wild breaks faith with ice floes

And in a rush of nostalgia proclaims spring.

Winter’s gone, oh happy day, winter’s gone,

Creation rejoices in God's bountiful embrace,

Swift river lends hand in shouts of adoration

With hallelujah chorus, awash in divine grace.

© Ilija Lukić 2017

Hallelujah Chorus
(Lower Haw River Natural Area near Old Bynum village in North Carolina USA)

Vernal Essence
(Lower Haw River Natural Area hiking trail follows the river bank near Old Bynum village in North Carolina USA)