Cenizo Journal Fall 2015 | Page 11

poetry Leigh Eaton and Bob Miles Poetry for Living Old Gods It was just a passing comment, how he missed the feel of that San Juan country, but I knew that feeling, there are places like that. Places that still have the pagan soul. They have not lost the magic. There the Old Gods await the time their healing will once more be needed, unmindful of the insignificant creatures moving with destructive persistence of termites over the land, creating their own artificial world. A few sense it. Most ignore it. Those who knew it too long gone, defeated and banished by the blind followers of the cross and the politics of Rome; those same fine folks who brought us conquistadores, crusade and inquisition. Those with eyes and hearts so set on their other world they do not know this one; taking, never giving back. In some few places, the followers of the Old Gods remain and they remember. The magic is still there. The pagan soul remains and the Old Gods wait. by Bob Miles My Homeland Hills give way to prairies And back to hills again. The woods are suddenly thicker And it begins to rain. I must be headed to the shore Where Texas meets the sky. by Leigh Eaton Back to the Blanket I envied him, My Mescalero friend, That day he chose To return to the reservation And become again what he was. He had a blanket to go back to And I did not. I have since learned It was not true. Among the simple, real people Of my younger days And the majestic mountain beauty I see around me, I do indeed have a Blanket to go back to. And while it may be true That you can't go home again, I can see it from here. by Bob Miles Cenizo Fourth Quarter 2015 11