Poetry Of Spirit And Light: White Owl Woman Soliloquy

A low cloud ceiling drapes the rolling tablelands and short grass prairie of the Northern Llano Estacado. White Owl Woman gathers her minions just beyond the horizon. She longs to spread her frosted wings across the red earth and weathered flora of the Southern Great Plains. To prepare prairie denizens for her spree, she sends a covey of twenty-degree temperatures, wind chills in the teens, and freezing fog. The raw and brutal onslaught does not augur well for the days ahead.

The biting cold and freezing mists persist into midday. Cooper and I muster enough initiative and courage for a prairie excursion. We find the landscape frost-bound and eerily still. A lone hawk glides through the brume. However, the hunt is a futile endeavor. Wildlife has hunkered down in nests and burrows and awaits the arctic furies.

Cooper and I press on. The nips and bites of the sharp air are a welcome sensation. Our breaths steam in the chilled breeze. Ahead, the Llano rolls out a pageant of haunting beauty. The creative medium are supercooled cloud droplets drifting in frigid mists. The freezing fog longs for objects below freezing to lend a hand in fashioning marvelous ice sculptures. The prairie abounds with suitable structures. The cold embrace of the two lovers begets a glazed realm of stunning wonders--a soliloquy in ice. It is a fitting revelation of White Owl Woman’s intentions for the days to come.

© Ilija Lukić 2012