May 2019 – Page 2 – Neil Meili

Neil Meili

Zen Cowboy Poet & Freelance Philosopher

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Monthly Archives: May 2019

The Alp Leaps Up

Nature, Travel / May 19, 2019 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

The alp leaps up
like a chamois shot

that hid behind
soft cloud and hill

and breaks us
with its broken beauty — Photo taken from train between Munich and Vienna

2 Replies

A Train

Travel / May 18, 2019 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Munich - Salzburg - Vienna 2019

The thing about a train
is that your feet never leave the ground

Though your toes
must curl in elfin curl
from hide of cow to wheels of steel

as you travel the rails
of others trails that lead you to your own

Riding in Cars with Kinder

Travel / tagged Children / May 17, 2019 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

In Düsseldorf in spring
I share the back seat jail
with a kinder just turned one

Bindings force our faces
face to face

We laugh
at each other’s laugh
until the whole car shines

The world is indeed small
and round as two bellies quaking

The Armadillo

Audio Recordings / tagged Defence, Fear, Psychology / May 15, 2019 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

The armadillo lies
in the center of the road
with his feet in the air

The shell on his back
for centuries over used
caused the spine in his neck
to become somewhat fused

So that when he hears
that danger is near
he has to leap and turn
to cover his rear

And if that sound is the front of a car
he leaps into a sudden marriage
of armadillo and undercarriage

So he lays on his back and he waves his feet
a warning to travellers from far and near
about the many dangers of old fear

and old ways of dealing with it

Pulling Pipe

Audio Recordings, Cattle, Cows, Family, Farm, Poems about Poetry, Ranch Life, Relationships / May 14, 2019 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Trouble down the well

and me, my dad, and my brothers
are Texas roughnecks

pulling spinning and stacking pipe
pipe and rod and “Careful dammit!
If you drop that rod the well is shot”

We’re Red Adair, fighting a fire
we’re wet and muddy and cold and mad
and we’ve got to get it done by dark

The gold down there’s not black but red
an iron rich sea hiding away
from the pulling power of the prairie sun

Looking back fifty years from a poet’s perch

I pull, spin and stack
metaphor and meaning

Back then it was just men
doing what they had to do

and white-faced cattle waiting

Travel Makes the Colors Merge

Travel / May 13, 2019 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

The green of here
Is not the green of home

though when I leave
the green of both
will travel with me merged

The green I am since meeting you is greener richer too

1 Reply

Mother’s Day

Uncategorized / May 12, 2019 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Before Hallmark got ahold of it

Mother’s day was not
the second Sunday in May

Less commerce
but more meaning by far

in spring’s first crocus
in a jelly jar

1 Reply

Train Day

Audio Recordings, Nostalgia, Ranch Life / tagged Courval, Ghost Town, Prairie Life, Saskatchewan, Train Day, Trains / May 11, 2019 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Once a week, once a week
they came from all around, all around
and swelled, and swelled
the size of our young town

And the chugging grew, and the chugging grew
and the chugging grew, and the whistle blew
and all was new, and the children knew

But now the lines are down, all down
old folks and old dogs in the town
not a child nor a pup, nor a pup
and not one elevator up

1 Reply

Finding Giacometti

Travel / tagged sculpture / May 8, 2019 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

It is a high calling to be in trouble
as you travel along the road
creating good Samaritans at every trip and fall

The trick starts out by renting a car
from a small gas station/liquor store

Sketchy directions and a wrong turn
an unmanned toll booth and two tunnels
some workmen suggest the one to the right
a tunnel we thought would surface in England

Not England but where?
Industrial park on a holiday
one man working in the flowers
directions to get us a little closer

And then, what you don’t find
unless you get this lost

A town with a Giacometti university
and a statue in the circular town square
that might well have been worth
coming all the way to France to see

2 Replies

Sonnet for the Ordinary

Audio Recordings, Poems about Poetry / tagged Care / May 7, 2019 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

There is a loving way to make a bed
With pillows care set at the head
And a mother’s loving knead to give
Adds nourishment to help us live

We know that water crystals change
With words of love or hate about
From snowflake to a muddy mange
And we are water without doubt

A cheerful flipper at the greasy spoon
Feeds us better though the food be junk
Than Pierre at the Ritz with silver spoon
Serving Crèpes Suzette with Galic funk

And care enough within a poem
can provide another home

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Nancy Fierstien on Eyes of FriendsNovember 6, 2025
Lovin' this one, line after line!
Nancy Fierstien on Light on LeavesNovember 2, 2025
Yet another favorite of mine! How can I hold back this "THANK YOU!" ???
Sandi Hebley on How Fallen AngelsAugust 17, 2025
Indeed!
Nancy Fierstien on Unremember ThatAugust 16, 2025
Gonna be inclined to share this one at my Poets' Tea reading tomorrow afternoon. Thanks, Neil!
Sandi Hebley on Memory Lane JoggingAugust 5, 2025
Lovely!

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