Passion - Desire Set Afire

What separates well-lived from life mundane?

Rhythm of swift horse on windswept plain,

Storied days hooked on cowboy way of life,

Where brotherly ties make trail rides worthwhile.

Moonlight strolls on sandy ocean shores

By desirous lovers longing to embrace,

Awash in feelings akin breaking waves,

Yet exquisite like butterflies in meadows.

Light captured in a single pearl of dew

With velvet gloves of quietude at dawn,

Then spilled in strokes across white linen realm

As words that caress human heart and soul.

Find passion within simple things in life,

Where passion thrives as desire set afire.

Ilija Lukić 2020

Note: Written while admitted to UNC Hospital, Chapel Hill NC for heart stent procedure...reflections about my cowboy days in NM, first date with my wife and love of photography and writing.

Mutual Respect

Peace and harmony flow when hearts brim with mutual respect.

© Ilija Lukić 2020

Mutual Respect
(Arapaho Warrior painting by Ilija Lukić with clay and horsehair sculptures by Linda Person)

Mushrooms Into Eagles

Does taking a risk increase the likelihood of making a mistake? I think not. It’s a toss of the coin. Inaction in the face of social upheaval wrought by the persistent coronavirus pandemic and riotous civil unrest more often than not leads to regrets over lost opportunities and successes.

On an outing into Carolina woodlands with my canine pal Cooper, I discover a mushroom in the damp duff. Albeit beautiful, it is not an eagle in majestic flight. A flurry of thoughts race through my mind. Have we as a people become akin a mushroom…resigned to lives away from sunlight…safely tucked into our respective corners of duff…afraid to engage in societal issues.

When I ponder the last six months of life in America, every heartbeat and fiber of my being screams the adage “damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead.” Wake up America, challenge naysayers and purveyors of divisiveness, doom and gloom. Be that eagle taking bold flight into murky skies, for you know our best days are ahead.

© Ilija Lukić 2020

A Heart Content

Wallow not in despair wrought by false idols,

Who gage human essence by traits skin-deep.

Countervail spite with love not reprisals

And a heart content with life you will reap. 

© Ilija Lukić 2020

Virgin Wood
(West of Pittsboro North Carolina)

God Bless America - Independence Day 2020

In the 1980s and 90s during the darkest days of the Cold War, I served more than a decade in Belgium and Germany on the front lines in our determined stand against the scourges of Communism, Fascism and promotion of worldwide anarchy by our adversaries. These days our country faces the same darkness once more...this time from within.

While serving in distant lands ever mindful of local cultures, we gathered encouragement from standing shoulder to shoulder as Americans in heart and soul. We opened gatherings, whether formal military function or social event with a prayer, our National Anthem and often the song "God Bless The USA." Time has not erased the emotions that welled within each such assemblage, as we stood united in preserving the ideals of our founding as a Nation, side-by-side, hand-in-hand regardless of race, creed or social background.

This year illuminations from one end of our country to the other marked our Independence Day. My favorite were the fireworks over Mt Rushmore National Monument.

Authorities in many states limited or cancelled public gatherings, celebrations and fireworks. However, our indomitable American spirit of patriotism was not muted as citizens celebrated and then lighted night skies above cities, villages, even single-family farm and ranch homes with personal fireworks. I'm proud to be an American!

I enjoy traditional Fourth of July festivities and take time to listen to the song "God Bless The USA" written by Lee Greenwood in 1984. Irresistibly the lyrics inspire hopes and prayers that we as a people set the spark of unity which stirred so long ago ablaze once more. God Bless America!

© Ilija Lukić 2020

Sunshine For The Heart

Last night’s passion lingers on finger tips,

While tender whispers keep daybreak at bay.

Till hearts bid adieu with tears upon lips

That ache for new tryst with little delay

Be still, let me make sense of your heartbeat

And kiss me like there are no tomorrows.

Touch my soul earnestly, without deceit.

Let heart’s eye find us lustful in meadows.

Summon into mind sunny garden bower

Where we renew love’s essence when apart;

Because my heart, like a field sunflower,

Thrives on the sunlight that floods from your heart

Love lives not in reason, but in the heart,

And grows most deeply when hearts are apart.

© Ilija Lukić 2020

Eternal Battle Of Light vs Darkness

Recently an important person in my life pronounced my views of our country to be filthy and an unacceptable contagion.

I pondered the comment in relation to my life experiences and present national mood. Unmistakably, I sensed that odious shadows vying for dominion over our country’s soul since time immemorial have cast darkness across our land, intent on overwhelming goodness and respectable behavior. The reward this darkness seeks is to turn each one of us against the other.

Children of light, let us resolve to forgo browbeating at the behest of evil.

Coming of age as the son of immigrant parents, who chose life in America some 60 years ago to fulfill their yearning for life, liberty and opportunities to pursue happiness, colors my worldview. We strived to honor the history, ideals and customs of our new home and achieved citizenship. I felt duty-bound to help protect and preserve our family’s and Nation’s dreams and aspirations through thirty years of military service across four continents.

Extensive travels at home and abroad provided firsthand knowledge of humanity and shaped world-wise character attributes. I suffered the slings and arrows of the human condition, experienced and observed instances of inhumanity, oppression, racism, intolerance, hate and various forms of governance. On each return to American soil I thanked God to be back in our storied homeland.

Are we perfect in our journey and exercise of God-given rights enshrined by our founders in the Declaration of Independence and our Constitution? By no means--we are fallible, but remain humanity’s best hope for equality and dignity for our and the world’s citizenry.

Our country was founded by individuals not only escaping religious and social discrimination, as well as political persecution, but also families longing for economic mobility. Nevertheless history does repeat, no matter how those with political power try to disguise their dark motives in advancing control and submission of the populace. Must we as a Nation continue to endure such a sad and unnecessary state of affairs?

Each day voices from children of light grow stronger among God’s faithful and people of good will. Light inevitably gets the better of darkness. Let us strive to be brothers and sisters and work hand in hand to realize our inalienable rights for every citizen.

© Ilija Lukić 2020


                                         By The Dawn's Early Light

Spiritual Showdown

When evil rears its odious, dark mien,

A world enlightened must rise and decry

Its breath of darkness unleashed to demean

And slay good brethren causing hue and cry.

Soon throes of chaos grow beyond the pale,

Beset storekeepers in the early bright

Amid brume shrouding sorrow and travail,

Which stifles breath after malicious night.

I strive to fathom darkling atmosphere

Cast across heretofore undaunted realm

Like prophetic darkness out of yesteryear—

Plagues of locust hell-bent to overwhelm.

Become as little children, free of evil;

Denounce dark hearts and harmful upheaval.

© Ilija Lukić 2020

Light Triumphant

Hope Dawning

When chaos reigns I draw courage and inspiration from inner realms. Those parts of my nature where the divine spark resides, where creative ideas take root, where mind and spirit meld, where love reigns supreme and peace is the natural order of the world. These realms are not a refuge. They are gateways to decency in verbal expression, behavior and moral parameters. Here is where hope springs to mind, forgiveness dwells and I hold dear eternal truths that define my essence and way of life.

Want of peace plagues heart

Sunrise hush floods mortal coil

Hope springs eternal

© Ilija Lukić 2020

Ante Meridiem
(Sunrise in woodlands near Bynum NC USA)

Footnote Of History

Using righteous protests over the murder of an American citizen as cover, riotous hordes wreak havoc which tears at the fabric of America. They draw our attention, but how often do riots improve the lives of people? We see riots lead to injuries, death, destruction of property and arrests, yet frank assessment of tensions and underlying causes rarely if ever takes place. Solutions to quell the violence must include understanding that in the heat of the moment rioters are unappeasable. Most importantly, we must resolve to denounce and stop those who incite violence and exploit social tensions for political gain and power. Lest we keep repeating history.

It’s time to come together as brothers and sisters, lest we perish as a ship of fools subservient to ill-intentioned governance and media sowing discontent so as to have our passage on Earth amount to an insignificant footnote in history.

In order to move forward we must firmly acknowledge old grievances and pain, make a checklist of consensus remedies and immediately put words into action. Let’s write a new chapter in our story as a Nation aligned with ensuring our Great American Experiment proclaimed 244 years ago succeeds.

© Ilija Lukić 2020

Reveille
(Forest trail near Bynum NC USA)

Infinitude

Make time and ponder infinitude

Revealed to inward eye by earthly spheres

Like vernal pools in woodland quietude,

Thanks to stardust awash in Heaven’s tears.

© Ilija Lukić 2020

Contemplating Infinitude
(Self-portrait on launch day of historic SpaceX/NASA manned spaceflight)

Quest Of The Eternal

This afternoon humanity begins a new era of manned spaceflight. The joint SpaceX-NASA launch of Crew Dragon realizes our highest ideals, hopes and dreams as a Nation and embodies mankind’s quest to understand the eternal.

Later in the day I make time for an outing into nature looking to meld intellectual with aesthetic perspectives of the day’s events. I ponder the vastness of the universe with inward eye informed by the essence of earthly realms. Nearby woodlands make ephemeral pools available for said pursuits. They divulge desired creative insight as I contemplate their collections of primordial stardust awash in endless days of raindrops. My heart finds joy in rhythms of the wild while mind comes to know eternity.

© Ilija Lukić 2020

Quest Of The Eternal
(Vernal pool in Carolina woodlands near Pittsboro NC)

Goddess Of The Rainbow

As downpour cedes dominion to sunlight,

Rainbow hues make prismatic overtures

Ere goddess of the rainbow takes bold flight

In bright play of light above wet pastures.

© Ilija Lukić 2020

Goddess Of The Rainbow
(photo impressionism)

Love, Hope and Faith

Our mortal hearts absent love shared with another human being suffer. Yet hope springs eternal and anguish heals with time, whereas our immortal souls willfully steering clear of God’s love suffer eternity mired in hopelessness.

© Ilija Lukić 2020

Ruby Tetrad

Phantasm

Dog spirit prowls woods

Shadows cloak sun-dappled ghost

Phantom feels at home

© Ilija Lukić 2020

Dappled Light Phantasm
(Mr Cooper)

Bridge To Elysium

I meander woodlands lost in daydreams

In purposeful quest of oblivion,

Where shadowed splash of Iris and sunbeams

Becomes rainbow bridge to Elysium.

© Ilija Lukić 2020

Bridge To Elysium
(Tribute to Iris the Greek goddess of the rainbow)

Paradise Regained

I meander down wooded trails left damp by early morning rain showers, while my canine pal Cooper forays across leaf litter and pine straw. He satisfies primal instincts with lighthearted pursuits of wildlife. Age-old sounds of the wild punctuate the stillness yet quickly fade into the primordial bosom of silence. The ambience reaches into my essence, as God whispers to my heart and touches my soul.

Songbird calls its mate
Sapsucker taps timber pub
Silence sighs grand noise

© Ilija Lukić 2020

Sticks And Stones
(on life's wooded trail)

Heart's Desire

She sways in rhythm with his caresses

While he tousles her viridescent locks.

Ere long with gentle breath he confesses

His love for her since vernal equinox.

He ceases bluster and vagabond bearing,

Once he feasts eyes on her lush silhouette

Amongst her chartreuse ladies-in-waiting,

Dappled with sunlight like winsome coquette.

She tries her best to resist vagrant beau.

Her heart held captive by his overtures

Foils reason and lets passions overflow.

Throwing caution to the wind she endures.

Let druthers bend to heart's desires, yet find,
Love needs both passion and right state of mind.

© Ilija Lukić 2020

Chartreuse Ladies-In Waiting
(Wooded trail north of Pittsboro, North Carolina USA)

Hand Of God

Sunlight sweeps through hush in tree colonnade

As though God’s hand were plainly at the helm.

Glow floods leaf litter upon hill and glade

And cues birdsong in tall stands of Winged Elm.

Flowers rejoice and sound vibrant refrains

With welcome help of butterflies and bees.

Not to be outdone, wild brook entertains

With babbles swelling lighthearted reprise.

Abide the solace nature's realm imbues

To mind, body and soul of mortals lost

In seemingly endless troubles called life.

Accept sageness woods nurture, resist blues,

Forge ahead, learn from every bridge crossed

Because sage mindset foils dark days and strife.

© Ilija Lukić 2020

Sublime Babel

Rivers Unchained

Rivers unchained make the most of stillness

Where shaded shoals ebb and flow placidly.

There eddies commune with sunrise danseuse

Who makes plain dreamland captivatingly.

© Ilija Lukić 2020

Dreamland Sunrise
(Haw River near Bynum, North Carolina USA)