Neil Meili

Zen Cowboy Poet & Freelance Philosopher

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An Invitation

Uncategorized / September 21, 2018 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Neil wanders the world in awe – Mirrors and metaphor everywhere. You can join him on this journey with a Poem in your Inbox every day. Click Here to start today

Black vs White

Environment, Nature / tagged Birds / March 18, 2019 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Complainers of the tyranny of snow
call back the raven and the crow
Magpie too wise to choose sides
holds both their coats

Guinness Limerick

Audio Recordings, Limerick / tagged St. Patrick's Day / March 17, 2019 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

In Vino Veritas
In Guinness Limerick

Tis a lovely thing the Limerick

And a pint of Guinness helps it stick

But sad their magic is fickle

And though a little may tickle

Sure and too much of either’ll make you sick

The Lure of the Limerick

Audio Recordings, Limerick, Poems about Poetry / tagged Irish / March 16, 2019 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Wishing you a St. Patrick’s day weekend filled with limericks and laughter.

March Again

Uncategorized / tagged Leprechaun / March 15, 2019 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Limericks sprouting in every shadow
and shamrocks in every shade

and the white head on the Guinness
and the red of the colleen
turning yours to boxty and stew

while the little folk dance
on days as long as the snakes are gone

Waxwings

Nature / tagged Austin / March 13, 2019 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Waxwings
drunk on berries and spring
are partying wild in our yard

Brother Icarus feeling such joy
might have too neared the sun
at the top of a loop like that

1 Reply

Jeep

Farm, Nostalgia, Ranch Life / March 12, 2019 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Dad had a Willy’s Jeep
That took us to school for a while

In the wet it was wet, in the cold it was cold

Our baby teeth bounced from our jaws
And bruises covered every bum

We knew that it was built for war - it felt like war

1 Reply

The Bells of Le Crotoy

Audio Recordings, Travel / March 11, 2019 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

In the little village by the Baie
bells still wake you every day

And since not all the churches agree
we wait while each has its pretty say
then snuggle back for a little nap
because a bell is just a bell
and we’re on holiday

If we had really listened
we might have have heard them say

We are the bells Jeanne d’Arc heard
breaking over walls of prison stone
the morning of her walk to Rouen
and then never heard again

We are the bells Jules Verne heard
rattling rough shuttered windows
get up lazy writer and grasp for that pen
you have leagues to write ‘fore you rest again

We are the bells that the fishermen heard
on the mornings behind their names
on the monument to men lost at sea
heard last before going to sea

Herefords

Audio Recordings, Cattle, Cowboy Poetry, Nature, Ranch Life / March 10, 2019 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

They’re not as storied as the Texas longhorn
nor as hairy as the Highland creed

And they’re not nearly so sophisticated
as the latest European breed

They sure don’t calf out as easy as Angus
but all around, they’re all you need

(and they’re pretty too)

I remember
few things as beautiful
as looking back from the point
and seeing a few hundred Herefords
pouring through a cleft in the hills
down to the home corrals
like a spring flood
red as earth and blood

Rolling with white-faced foam

1 Reply

Three Draft Horses

Farm, Ranch Life / March 9, 2019 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

On the ranch, ride before you walk
with big sister's brave behind my scared

Grandfather's big Clyde, top as wide as a table

The jackhammer hoofed plug at Al's in Idaho
while Dorsey gets to ride the silk-paced Arab
Chivalry is not dead, but it has a sore ass

May they all chomp
the hay of heaven while I flesh them out again

1 Reply

Mother’s Poem

Farm, Ranch Life, Relationships / tagged International Women's Day / March 8, 2019 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

It’s International Women’s Day and I’m thinking of the many wonderful and accomplished women I am blessed to have in my life.

The kitchen has always been the center
of the universe of any farm or ranch

She feeds their sleepy forms in morning
clothes them for the cold or warm
and prays them safe from harm

Looks out her window to the east
where barn shadows and rolling hills
greet them as they start their day

Men in firm direction to their work
children scattering to play

Then south across the lake to catch
the water’s mood foretelling wind or calm

Sometimes
sees in morning
mirages of cutbanks rising
like mountains along the Eastern shore

Or more directly to the south
forms of her old neighbor’s homes
rising and shimmering
like memories of her youth

Seasons spiral out and in from this center
crocus and buttercups in the greening grass
cactus flowers and the joy of newborn calves

The growing season of the grain
and golden glory of a well stooked field

The shortening of days into winter
and the ever present stars
joined by the dance
of northern lights

Within each season she has watched
the play of seasons of each day
men return from roundup
children from their play

While she waits always at the center
to warm and love and feed

and safely tuck away — Mom and brother Wally in the ranch kitchen 1952

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Black vs White
Guinness Limerick
The Lure of the Limerick
March Again
Waxwings

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Barbara Reichlin on Waxwings
Wolfgang on Jeep
weselne on Psychotherapy (or A Six-Year-Old Learns About Clocks)
Wolfgang on Herefords
Wolfgang on Three Draft Horses

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