Cenizo Journal Summer 2020 | Page 7

Cenizo Notes by Danielle Gallo I love many things about this magazine, but the thing I love the most is that it is a venue for the voices of the Big Bend. Every region has its chorus, its song to sing. Each is unique, and the song of the Big Bend is rich, sweet, and complex. In these pages we are honored to lend a stage to the songs of our history, our ecology, our art and our culture. Our voices change over time. The words change. Generations pass through and fade into history, newcomers move in and lend their different tones. Children’s voices grow stronger as their parents step back to take a supporting role. Some sing clarion solos and others lend their voices en masse in the chorus. At times the music is dissonant. At times we harmonize. We have seen wars, and we’ve fought against each other. We’ve seen wars and we’ve fought side by side. We’ve had our discriminations, our segregations, our injustices. We’ve had our massacres and our crimes against each other. At times a few have built empires on the backs of the many Contributors cont. here. Other times, we’ve come together to build things for ourselves. Insofar as the Big Bend is a microcosm of the world’s larger society, I have a lot of hope for the future. I’ve often boasted to outsiders of how our diversity in thought and practice is irrelevant in some ways, because knowing each other as intimately as we do, we can still be neighbors in spite of our differences. My neighbors know that I will drop everything to help them when they’re in need, and I know they’d do the same for me— and the fact that my pinko commie liberal egghead attitudes don’t mesh with their reactionary protectionist conservative ones is irrelevant to the day to day struggles we all face, together and alone in this life. We know the difference between right and wrong, and the vast, vast majority of us strive to do right when faced with a choice between the two. We know the difference between love and hate, and no matter how hate may take hold in our thoughts, our actions show that we struggle always toward love. The world is changing quickly, and these are times of great upheaval. But I am comforted by my firm belief that we will continue to choose to serve the good and the right. Faced with someone on the ground, faced with the choice to extend a hand or to deliver a blow, I believe my community will lend its strong arm with open hands to uplift and support those who need it. I believe the song we sing together, sometimes in a minor key, will resolve into a great swelling of voices, each of which can be honored and heard. As the world is shaken by violence and plague, we will be faced more than we ever have in our lives by these choices. And I’m happy to be here, among community, among family, where we can look each other in the eye and meet on common ground, no matter what may come. Tom and Anne Weeks live in Columbus, OH and for about 15 years have spent their winters volunteering in national parks, mainly in the southwest and Florida. Parks they have volunteered at include Pipe Spring Nat'l Monument (AZ), Everglades, Carlsbad Caverns, Kingsley Plantation (FL), Theodore Roosevelt NP, (ND), and Gulf Islands Nat'l Seashore. Email: tomweeks@aol.com Jim Wilson is a 70-yr. old, white male, with no criminal record. He is a retired veterinarian currently specializing in grass growing, gardening, writing, and public elementary school volunteering. He is philosophically conservative republican with closet democratic idealist empathy and therefore has absolutely no credentials to be a poet. However, he has written 600 plus since 2000, and feels compelled to share them with unsuspecting victims. Publications include Concho River Review, San Antonio Express News, The Mountain Spirit, Jeff Davis Mountain Dispatch, The Lions Pride, Cenizo Journal, Poetic Bond VIII and IX, Abilene Scene, VIA Metropolitan, 2021 Texas Poetry Calendar and others. SUBSCRIPTIONS Print subscriptions will be mailed for $29 annually. Send payment via check or credit card to Cenizo Journal, PO Box 920700, El Paso, Texas 79902 or call 432-614-4074 ext 1 SUBMISSION We’d like to feature your work in the Cenizo Journal. Contact Danielle Gallo at editor@cenizojournal.com for submission information or mail to PO Box 227, Marathon, Texas 79842. Cenizo Journal is published four times per year. © 2020 Cenizo Journal. Copyright of all art and images contained within are retained by the image owner and are used with permission. SUMMER EDITION • JULY 2020 - SEPTEMBER 2020 CENIZO JOURNAL STAFF PUBLISHER Riley Stephens publisher@cenizojournal.com ASSOCIATE EDITOR Rani Birchfield aed@cenizojournal.com EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Danielle Gallo editor@cenizojournal.com DESIGN/PRODUCTION Ceci Marquez Cenizo Summer 2020 7