Kiss Summer Goodbye

Summer surrenders her verdant robes

To cool Autumn days and morning mists.

Winged guests depart for balmy climes,

Ere Winter looses her savage beasts.

Sunspots (helianthus annuus, aka Annual Sunflower)

Coral Reef (cirsium ochrocentrum, aka Yellowspine Thistle)

Grassland Buddies (Plains Yucca and Broadleaf Milkweed)

Kiss Summer Goodbye (cirsium ochrocentrum)

Let There Be Light

Russian Thistle (salsoa tragus, aka Tumbleweed)

High Plains Rover (Cooper)

Amber Seas Of Grain

Sawtooth Daisy (grindelia papposa, aka Wax Goldenweed)

Silver Bluestem Straw (bothriochloa saccharoides)

Tumbleweed (salsoa tragus)

Family Ties (Yellowspine Thistle)

Blue Grama Gold (bouteloua gracilis)

Buffalobur Nightshade (solanum  rostratum)

Wind Witch (salsoa tragus, aka Tumbleweed)

Tenacious Beauty

I cock my head and lower my cowboy sombrero into the brisk northeasterly winds. The brim flutters nervously with every gust. This wind carries a telltale smattering of autumn on its lively breath. I welcome its cool strokes across my face, for it signals the end of endless, blistering heat upon the Llano Estacado prairie. It’s midmorning. Temperatures struggle to breach 70°F under a milky, baby-blue canopy of New Mexico sky.

Cooper and I amble across the late-summer prairie. The aroma of sage amuses my nostrils. Nearby, a committee of Turkey Vultures eyeballs our intrusion from their lofty roosts in a grouping of tree skeletons. On edge, they laboriously launch into the stiff breezes and drift away. While Cooper  forges ahead with several exuberant escapades across the prairie wilds, I ponder the recurrent seasonal drama afoot.

Just weeks ago summer thunderstorms rejuvenated vegetation and wildlife. For a brief moment in time green carpets of flora bridged the endless horizons of the Llano. Today, prairie winds roughhouse across the early autumn regalia of these resplendent vistas. Rust, amber, and white-gold seas of grass dominate. Green domes of broomweed, yucca rosettes with woody stalks topped by arrays of crusty seed pods, purple prickly pear cactus fruit, and tenacious wildflowers punctuate the abundance of ripe grass grains. Another chapter in a never ending story nears completion.


© Ilija Lukić 2012

Tenacious Beauty (machaearanthera tanacetifolia, aka Tansy Aster)

Indian Figs (opuntia engelmannia)

Weathered Wood On Spurge

Sun Dancers (gaillardia pulchella, aka Fire Wheel)

Rose Heath Aster (chaetopappa ericoides, aka Baby-White Aster)

Field Bind Weed Runners

Sunbaked Serenity (Texas Blueweed)

Red Aphid Frenzy (Yellowspine Thistle)

Little Bluestem Panicle (schyzachyrium scoparium)

Greeneyed Lyreleaf (aka Chocolate Daisy)

Wind Dancer (Yellowspine Thistle down)

Prairie Berry Surprise (solanum eleagnifolium, aka Silverleaf Nightshade)

White Sweet Clover (melilotus alba)

Purple Siblings (Texas Large Pad Prickly Pear Cactus)

Pink Kisses (erigeron modestus, aka Plains Fleabane)

Survivor (ratibida columnifera, aka Prairie Coneflower)

Elder Statesman (machaeranthera tanacetifolia, aka Prairie Aster)

 

Sun Wheel (Golden Aster)

Chammaesyce Serpyllifolia ssp. hirtula (aka Hairy Thyme-Leafed Spurge, Thymeleaf Sandmat)

Purple Sextuplets (psoralea tenuiflora, aka Scurfy Pea, Wild Alfalfa)

Cactus Candles

Yucca Daggers (yucca campestris, aka Plains Yucca)

Wax Goldenweed Bract (grindelia papposa, aka Sawtooth Daisy)

Chocolate Daisy (berlandiera lyrata, aka Chocolate Daisy)

Benevolent Tempest

Picradeniopsis oppositifolia is an unremarkable forb within the prairie wild flower realm. Nonetheless, this tenacious perennial is responsible for launching my journey to inspire appreciation of our natural world through prose, poetry, and photographic art.

Picture if you will, my canine pal Cooper and I trekking across the Llano Estacado tablelands of Eastern New Mexico. I leave a heavy foot print and unwittingly disturb the delicate balance of the shortgrass prairie biome. I trample an inconspicuous, yellow wild flower--an Opposite Leaf Bahia. My actions unleash chaos, albeit infinitesimal in the grand scheme of the universe. My single crushing step produces irreversible changes, as does a single flap of a butterfly’s wings and even a single image of natural beauty rendered by this humble light catcher. Duly, our world and human spirit diverge from what would have been.

The tiny amount of chaos generated by my errant steps has since grown into a fire within my belly. I gladly ride the benevolent tempest on what has become an enduring quest for wisdom and knowledge. My teacher is patient and the well of enlightenment fathomless.


© Ilija Lukić 2012

Scarlet Gaura

Picradeniopsis Oppositifolia (Opposite Leaf Bahia)

Oldtimer (Yellowspine Thistle)

Opposite Leaf Bahia

Wild Alfalfa (aka Scurfy Pea)

Lean To Your Left (haplopappus spinulosus, aka Spiny Ironplant)

Waiting For Rain

Thirsty Redroot Pigweed

Loaded With Prairie Gold

Blue Grama Panicle

Yellow Dwarf

Flower Moth (schinia mortua)

Try To Catch The Wind

Ode To A Drought

Our 100-degree days linger. The once lush prairie grasses have turned to straw.  Ephemeral islands of greenery and the hardiest of wildflowers cling to life. Except for the hours just after sunrise, prairie wildlife avoids the anvil of the sun. An eerie quiet hangs over the Llano Plain.

Lone hawk soars, hark, meadow lark sings,

And swallows skim silver sage on swift wings.

Wildflowers splash color, defy the drought,

The chatter in burrows is of courage, not doubt.

Prairie beasts languish, uncertain their fates,

Dead cattle bode ranches with closed gates.

Green meadows, dew, a running water draw,

The stuff of dreams, entombed in prairie straw.

Ranchers, farmers bow heads on bent knees,

Entreat the Almighty for storms, a cool breeze;

To wet furrows of corn and sorghum with rain,

And ease the sun’s grip and dust on the plain.

The Staked Plain dances to a familiar tune,

Yearns for hit-or-miss rains, craves their boon.

Lest one forgets, thunderstorms do surprise,

Their torrents quench dearth, arouse paradise.


© Ilija Lukić 2012

Scurfy Pea (psoralidium tenuiflorum)

Hope Springs Eternal (Yellowspine Thistle)

Ghost Of Groucho Marx (bouteloua gracilis, Blue Grama)

Ready To Bloom (dieteria canescens, aka Hoary Tansyaster)

Elegant Hostess (Western Honey Bee on Engelmann's Daisy)

Sunflower Head Clipping Weevil (haplorhynchites aeneus)

 Desert Straw (stephanomeria pauciflora, aka Wire Lettuce)

Spiny Golden Aster (haplopappus spinulosus)

Ode To A Drought (tribulus terrestris, aka Puncturevine)

Man In The Moon

In the wilds east of our high plains hamlet a drawn-out coyote howl rises into the starry night. A waxing gibbous moon with its spectacular hump-backed shape, clearly visible lunar seas, and surface areas pockmarked with craters lights up the prairie panorama. After an unassuming ascension in the eastern sky just after midday, the luminous nightlight inspires awe, poetry, and quests to understand its mysteries.

For a few moments I soak up its soothing glow and give in to childhood fantasies of the man in the moon. The Mare Serenitatis forms his head and Mare Tranquilitaris his torso. The lunar maria Nectaris and Fecunditatis shape his legs. With a small dog at his side and entertained by mankind’s never-ending follies, he is content to circle the Earth forever and a day.

Near the lower bay of the Sea of Tranquility are three indistinct craters named for the Apollo 11 astronauts Aldrin, Collins, and Armstrong. They touched down on the lunar surface the twentieth of July in 1969 during a five-day-old waxing crescent moon phase, which gave them the best shadow details for a landing. They had twenty seconds of fuel left. This is where Armstrong stepped off their landing craft, the Eagle, on July 21, 1969 and uttered the fabled words, “That’s one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind.” In the hours ahead he and Aldrin became the first men to leave their footprints on the lunar surface.

Tonight’s gibbous moon against the star-filled canopy of night skies arouses memories of July 20, 1969. Once again I find myself with friends in a campground in Brindisi, Italy. While we wait for a morning ferry crossing to Greece, several British campers invite us to share the historic event over a small transistor radio. We stand awestruck and gaze at the crescent moon. Mankind’s most cherished treasures are our visions and dreams--the realm where soul and mind intersect, where we define our humanity.


© Ilija Lukić 2012

Man In The Moon - July 28, 2012