Prairie Daydreams

Lost in daydreams my heart still dances

To shod horse rhythms on Staked Plain

And lively refrains of rain on baked earth.

My soul still soars with red-tailed hawks

And surrenders to eternity in azure skies

Adrift among gossamer mansions of clouds.

My spirit still finds boundless inspiration

In memories of sage on windswept prairie

And meadowlark song in cool sunrise mists.

© Ilija Lukić 2015

Prairie Daydreams
(Rangelands north of Clovis, New Mexico USA)

Miracles Of Life

Dawn lifts veils of night.

Shadows welcome day.

Birdsongs exalt solitude.

Winged seeds set sail

‘Cross far sea of grass

Buoyed by early breeze

Ablaze in sunlit hues.

Each tiny miracle of life

Speaks boldly to my heart

And adamantly calls to mind,

Do not forsake this moment

Lost in tomorrow’s dreams.

© Ilija Lukić 2015

The Golden Hour
(Llano sunrise east of Clovis, New Mexico USA)

La Copa De La Vida (The Cup Of Life)

Come walk a mile in my shoes.
Let prairie wilds fill your cup of life.

Drink deeply,

Take joy in the rough cleavage of arroyos,

In sunlight’s dances ‘cross seas of grass,
In bejeweled thorns and golden blooms

And butterfly kisses from ceaseless winds.

Vast plains inspire bittersweet mindfulness

About the destruction of pristine prairie lands,

Where yesteryear passels of buffalo roamed,

Wallowed and basked come high noon blaze.

Take heart,

Playful pronghorn still roam the Staked Plain.

Hawks still soar among clouds in azure skies.

Coyotes still yip, bark and howl under full Moons

And prairie dog sentries mark passage of time.

© Ilija Lukić 2015

La Copa De La Vida (The Cup Of Life)
(North of Clovis, New Mexico USA)

Llano Sunrise
(Staked Plain east of Clovis, New Mexico USA)

Echoes Of Yesteryear

Colonial Williamsburg in the Commonwealth of Virginia is the crown jewel of America’s Historic Triangle which includes Jamestown and Yorktown. The College of William and Mary anchors the western approach to the old city’s main thoroughfare. While Cooper and I amble down the storied streets and sidewalks, sleepy late spring moods and modicum of tourists belie the hustle and bustle of summer throngs in days to come. Sights and sounds conjure days of old and lead to rumination about American Colonial and Revolution days.

Rhetoric of revolution still echoes in whispers of spring breeze under the refreshing shade of tree-lined streets. I pause my stroll at a pasture tucked between trees and a weatherworn split rail enclosure. The indomitable spirit and passion for liberty of our forbears lingers in the play of sunlight across the meadow of wildflowers.

Unexpectedly a yoke of oxen hitched to a creaky cart and urged forward by commands of a bullwhacker interrupts the serenity. The telltale tread of cloven hooves on Duke of Gloucester Street stirs musings of olden days when American Milking Devons are valued for meat, milk and as easily trained draft animals. Nearly extinct in the 1970s this triple purpose cattle breed first appears in New World annals from the Plymouth Colony in 1623. Capable of pulling several tons of supplies when hitched to wagons or ox carts, they are the tractors and trucks of days gone by. They disappear down a tree-draped expanse of lawn dubbed Palace Green towards the prominent governor’s residence.

Near the Governor's Palace a horse drawn carriage, clippety-clop of hooves on cobblestones and actors in colonial period garb fill mind’s eye with romance of yesteryears. In 1781 while the Battle of Yorktown rages, fire lays waste the erstwhile residence for Royal Governors in the Colony of Virginia while in use as a hospital for wounded soldiers. Reconstruction minds surviving plans, drawings and a 1740 copperplate rendering of the the exterior.

I leave the ancient byway exhilarated by its beauty, yet pensive. Colonial Williamsburg has grown my understanding of a remote time and inspires reflection about our roots and ideals as a People—Americans.

© Ilija Lukić 2015

Spring Reverie

Days Of Yore

Bullwhacker

Palace Green

Cottage Garden

Romance Of Yesteryear
(Governor's Palace in Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia USA)

Smoky Mountains Rain

Homeward bound from New Mexico I cross the rain and fog-shrouded northern reaches of the Great Smoky Mountains near the Tennessee-North Carolina border. I pause my tense traverse at a roadside rest stop. Beyond the stand of trees the Pigeon River winds through the Smokies on its way to a rendezvous with the French Broad River in Tennessee. For a fleeting moment the cloud cover scatters and light works its magic on the landscape. In the distance 4,928-foot Mount Cammerer makes a brief appearance in the mists.

© Ilija Lukić 2015

Smoky Mountains Rain

Endless Horizons

Springtime fills the heart with Wanderlust. Big sky country and roads stretched unto boundless horizons promise adventure and invite quests of renewal. Here is where curiosity takes wing, the mind conspires with the universe to dream and the soul feels eternity. Here is where the grand endeavors of the natural world fill wells of human wisdom with whispers of success by her most humble components.

 © Ilija Lukić 2015

Endless Horizon
(Near the Running Water Draw north of Clovis, New Mexico USA)

Where The Llano Ends
(Llano Estacado escarpment south of Tucumcari, New Mexico USA)

Unchain My Heart
(South of Broadview, New Mexico at sunset)

Fuego En La Llanura

Another high plains sunset is minutes away. Clouds in the western skies take on mystical shapes reminiscent of a roadrunner--our State bird. They ushers in the evening fires over tablelands strewn with prickly pear cactus and cholla. I turn eastward and take a few moments to relish the comforting, mellow hues of night unfolding across the prairie. The Texas Panhandle border lies at the horizon.

Bury my heart in New Mexico. I love this land of enchanted vistas, our mixing bowl of cultures, our tenacious people, our vibrant art and our future of endless possibilities. In the language of the ancient Diné people, AhóÁ to the Land of Enchantment!

© Ilija Lukić 2015

Roadrunner Sunset

Fuego En La Llanura
(South of Broadview, New Mexico USA)

Delta Blues

Brume and mizzle obscure Tennessee woodlands and my descent into the Mississippi alluvial plain at Memphis. Swollen by spring snow melt and heavy rains in the watershed the mighty river strains banks. Spillover inundates fertile farmlands in the Arkansas Delta. Ribbons of water in furrows and ephemeral ponds shimmers under breaks in cloud cover. Once Little Rock is in the rear view mirror I find overnight accommodations in the foothills of the Ozark Mountains. At first light I will depart Clarksville and push across the rolling plains of Oklahoma and westward into Texas and New Mexico.

© Ilija Lukić 2015

Bynum General Store

Once a bustling cotton mill village along the banks of the Haw with stores, school and even a movie theater, Bynum still echoes with sounds of its heyday. The general store opened in 1936 stands silent reminder to a once vibrant community life. Now closed, the store still serves as a focal point of community events. Most notably the gospel, folk, blues, rockabilly and bluegrass Front Porch Music venue, which takes place weekends on a stage at the back of the store from May through August.

© Ilija Lukić 2015

General Store
(Bynum, North Carolina USA)

First Touch Of Spring

At daybreak overnight sprinkles linger under low cloud cover. Glistening droplets adorn first touches of spring greenery. White splashes of flowering dogwood and pink crescendos of redbud breathe new life into my winter-weary spirits. Cooper and I rove wooded trails to the joyous chorus of song birds and percussions of a woodpecker. We chance upon the Haw River. I pause and take in the quietude created by rushing water. Cooper obliges primordial urges to explore every scent and sound in the riparian underbrush.

From its perch overlooking the river a Red-shouldered Hawk takes wing to escape our breach of hunter’s code and resumes its quest for food upriver. Undeterred by the commotion a Great Blue Heron stalks prey along the rock-strewn banks of the Haw. My heart races in exuberant celebration of the wild. The natural world most certainly nurtures the primal threads that bind us to one another and define our humanity.

© Ilija Lukić 2015

First Touch Of Spring
(Haw River near Bynum, North Carolina USA)

Renascence

Songbirds chitchat in lofty backcountry

Outback wakes from wintertime repose

Unhurried creek murmurs vernal homily

Haggard heart finds joy in pensive prose.

© Ilija Lukić 2015

Whispers Of Spring
(lateral channel of Haw River near Bynum, North Carolina USA)

Eternal Optimist

The setting sun briefly pierces the brume of a stormy day to assure woodland denizens and winter-weary humans of the forthcoming spring revival. In her indomitable way nature provides the palette. Light is her medium and hearts are the canvas for her poetry of light.

© Ilija Lukić 2015

Eternal Optimist

Eagle Territory

A seventy-five degree late-winter day stirs spring fever and Wanderlust. Cooper and I explore the southernmost reaches of Jordan Lake. Here the tawny confluent of the Haw River merges with lake waters. We pause on a bluff overlooking the lake in a northerly direction. The striking views grandstand a small sector of the seventeen-mile-long reservoir and its pristine 180-mile shoreline.

An unfamiliar raptor screech diverts my attention to the skies. A bald eagle on six foot wingspan glides into view and disappears along the wooded shore. Relatively shallow Jordan Lake and woodlands are exceptional eagle habitat and professedly host the largest concentration of bald eagles on the East Coast.

© Ilija Lukić 2015

Eagle Territory
(Jordan Lake east of Pittsboro, North Carolina)

Spring Fever
(Cooper, spring sun and a carpet of moss on a bluff overlooking Jordan Lake)

Restless Heart

I contemplate rockbound river wild
Then set adrift my restless heart
To ponder why both long for renewal
Near windswept dunes in briny deep.

© Ilija Lukić 2015

Restless Heart
(Sycamore on the Haw River near Bynum, North Carolina USA)

Faded Livelihoods

For a couple of centuries small farms produced much of the tobacco crop in North Carolina. Tobacco curing sheds endure as iconic reminders of a way of life in America's rural South from Richmond, Virginia to southern Georgia. They bear witness to mid-South Americana from a time when tobacco was king. Based on centuries-old designs and traditions passed on within families, farmers built unique barns and sheds to cure the leaves.

Once common sights along highways and byways only about 50,000 tobacco curing barns still stand. Some have been re-purposed, most remain as abandoned ruins and nostalgic structures inspiring wistful trips down memory lane and quests for stories of people who made a living in their shadows.

© Ilija Lukić 2015

Faded Livelihood
(Tobacco curing shed near Pittsboro, North Carolina USA)

Tobacco Road Shed

Storm On The Haw

Thunderstorms threaten as Cooper and I descend a wooded trail towards the Haw River. The path takes us downstream and across a small tributary creek. A fallen tree spans the shallow waterway. However, a foggy morning followed by periodic sprinkles coat its surface with a slippery sheen. I heed thoughts of caution until scattered boulders invite a rock-to-rock traverse. Resistance proves futile.

Cooper hesitates but follows my lead across the stepping stones. He's a master in adapting to his new woodland and water environment. We find numerous animal tracks in the muddy, riparian habitat. While Cooper explores scent trails, I take time to enjoy the serenity and capture several images of the churning river. Soon rain cuts our adventure short and we skedaddle back uphill to shelter in our vehicle.

© Ilija Lukić 2015

Storm On The Haw
(Lower Haw River just above Jordan Lake, North Carolina USA)

Beware The Pridie Nones Of March

Wildlife, flora and people across the southern reaches of the Piedmont Plateau yearn for Spring. Unusually warm weather belies the approaching Ides of March. Far and wide the perennial quickening of life forces stirs encouraged by balmy seventy-degree breezes. However, in the thick of woodlands Father Winter chuckles at such foolishness and unleashes a grim reminder of his enduring dominion over the realm. With emphatic sweep of his Cimmerian robe he unleashes torrential rains and bitterly cold squalls. In the wink of an eye temperatures drop forty degrees.

Daylight finds the Haw River a tawny, raging watercourse. A major tributary of Jordan Lake, its rush of flood waters swells the shallow reservoir beyond banks and into shoreline woodlands. Where Cooper and I roamed sandy beaches a fortnight ago, turbid lake waters lap at the feet of majestic Loblolly Pines.

© Ilija Lukić 2015

Pridie Nones Of March

March Flood

Life's Beaten Path

Elysian Night

Oh Elysian wintry night,

You hearten stars on high 

To abandon celestial realms

Veiled as cottony flurries

Coveting soft embraces

With silent Mother Earth.

© Ilija Lukić 2015

Winter Slumber

Falling Stars

Spring Thaw

The spring equinox is twenty days away. By late afternoon sunshine gets the better of murky skies and temperatures briefly reach into the low forties. The warmth melts the weeklong snow blanket in sheltered woodland areas with unexpected ease. Small rivulets form and expose the red clay soil, which dominates the Piedmont Plateau in our area. The water erodes intricate patterns and by absorption colors the snow.

© Ilija Lukić 2015

Spring Thaw

Stone Age Portal Dolmen

During a hike through Carolina woods with Cooper, I come upon an imposing stone work devised by creative landscape architects. Stark yet aesthetic lines capture my attention and imagination. The artful replica is reminiscent of single-chamber, megalithic tombs scattered all over Europe. Most date to the late-Neolithic era 4000 - 3000 BC. I take a moment and dwell on my school days in Deutschland captivated by histories of ancient cultures and civilizations. I remain an aficionado of German and Norse mythology, epic poetry and stories. My heart takes flight to days of yore, when Frost Giants roamed the Earth.

© Ilija Lukić 2015

Neolithic Portal Dolmen