Dru Philippou

Pioneers of Different Colors

women gathering 
wild raspberries 
under magenta skies 
the door to the past
                 left open

The Ute Indians believe they were one of the first peoples to inhabit the Rio Costilla Valley of northern New Mexico. During the reconquest of the territory in 1694, Governor Diego de Vargas crossed the lush green valley and imagined farms spread along the river. In 1779, Juan Bautista de Anza invaded the region in his campaign against the Comanches, and by the middle of the 19th century, seven interconnected plazas were built, inviting settlement. 

cloud shadows 
sweep across the desert— 
yet here and there 
daubs of chamisa shrubs 
bloom golden-yellow

Artists Ernest Blumenschein and Bert Phillips were on a sketching trip from Denver to Mexico, their horse-drawn wagon packed with art supplies. Just north of Taos, one of the wheels broke on a steep and muddy road. Blumenschein rode a horse to town in search of a blacksmith. By the time he’d ridden twenty-three miles, he was entranced by the crystalline light, the broad sweep of the horizon, the endless skies, and the native peoples. 

poised 
on a stony stream bank 
a man casts a line— 
oil paints capture the colors 
that flow like blood in his veins

When Blumenschein returned, he told Phillips they need go no further because home was right beneath their feet. In 1898 the first art colony was established in Taos.

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About the Author

Dru Philippou was born on the island of Cyprus, raised in London, and currently lives in northern New Mexico, where hiking in the high desert wilderness nourishes both her spirit and her writing. Her haibun “Afterlife” won first place in the Haiku Society of America’s 2021 Haibun Awards competition. She is the author of A Place to Land, a memoir in tanka prose.