Neil Meili

Zen Cowboy Poet & Freelance Philosopher

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Little Church

Audio Recordings, Family / tagged Childhood, Religion / April 8, 2022 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Sometimes, as far from everywhere as we were,
a visiting or student minister would make the
long trek and our one room school would
become a church for the day

It didn’t happen often
so the first time my three year old brother
sitting in the second row heard him say
“Jesus Christ”
he turned and said
“He swore mom, the minister swore”

“Shh” said my mother,
“He swore, he swore, he swore” said Wally
every effort to silence him only increasing his
insistence and volume

Most fun that most of us, except my mother,
ever had in church

2 Replies

Gopher Tails

Audio Recordings, Farm, Nature, Nostalgia, Ranch Life / April 7, 2022 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

When I was seven
gopher tails were three cents

The county had a bounty to arrest the little pest
not exactly a price on their heads
but you get the picture

So we hauled buckets of water
to drown them out
learned from the bigger boys
how to tie a noose in binder twine
placed it around the hole
and waited

Curiosity, which has been known to kill cats
is not very good for gophers either

Once caught
they were run in mad races
spun to centrifugal asphyxiation
or finished off in other cruel ways
before yielding us our hard earned bounty

In the spring we watched their return
to the snow speckled pasture
running tumbling wrestling
making love

And the wonderful babies
when they first ventured out
to try sunshine grass and shaky legs

It amazes me now
that as boys

We could take such joy
in their playful
beauty

And in their deaths

1 Reply

A Prairie Villanelle

Audio Recordings, Farm, Nostalgia, Ranch Life, Travel / April 6, 2022 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

If prairie wheels again had I
I’d chew the gravel and the air
with prairie roads to fly

I’d plume the earth into sky
to show them I was there
If prairie wheels again had I

Past placed where dead neighbours lie
I’d not linger, who would dare
with prairie roads to fly

Dust to dust gets in your eye
I’d look for other things to share
if prairie wheels again had I

Then greener farmyards I’d pass by
in mem-mirages free of care
with prairie roads to fly

I’d roll past all that makes you cry
afloat I sunsets clear and fair
in prairie wheels again had I
with prairie roads to fly

Circling the Square

Audio Recordings, Travel / April 5, 2022 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

The old towns in South Texas
have a town square that all life circles around
One sees it also in Mexico and Spain
but that was where I saw them first
and an instant homeless rose
In the small towns of Saskatchewan
where I was born and raised
there was only a main street
and that was always a road out of town

Town square San Marcos Texas, thirty miles south of Austin
Photo credit: Sharon Stuart

Dearly Not Departed

Audio Recordings, Relationships, Remembering / April 4, 2022 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

I have a picture
not taken by a camera

Of you
in a white peasant blouse
standing in a field of bluebonnets
Any time I take it out will be spring

for Sharon

1 Reply

Reveille

Audio Recordings, Nature / tagged Austin, Garden, Spring / April 3, 2022 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

The trumpet vines
are loud with bloom
heralding the spring

A Garden Blessing

Audio Recordings, Nature / tagged Faith, Hope, Spring, War / April 1, 2022 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Today all day the loving rain
has fallen on the new set plants

There are no
atheists in the trenches
and none watching from this window

Flag of Ukraine

Audio Recordings, Farm, Haiku, News / March 31, 2022 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

The flag of Ukraine
Sunflower fields and blue skies
Let it be again

War Wounds

Family / tagged Scars / March 30, 2022 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

There are, the epigeneticists say
memories that haven't gone away

What happened to
your grandma when the troops came by
is still barbed-wire wrapped around your DNA

Dreams that aren't yours
neurons firing like the war's still on
and mines set off by a word or a touch

So please be gentle with one another
and your mother and your mother's mother

The Widow

Audio Recordings, News, Relationships / tagged Death, Grief, War / March 29, 2022 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

After the news from the war

The lady in the dream
pulls her dead
husband's bed
closer

Gathers the bulky covers
to her embrace

And says...

I'm all fixed out if frame
I've built these useless stairs
it seems I'll need them again

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Anonymous on Rule BritannicaNovember 6, 2026
Amen to that.
Sandi Hebley on Ready for WinterOctober 26, 2026
😁😁
NEIL MEILI on Laughing With the DeadOctober 25, 2026
Thanks for the story Sandi, And bet he is and that I would have liked him Neil
Sandi Hebley on Okay Now – MostlyOctober 22, 2026
🤗
Sandi Hebley on Laughing With the DeadOctober 21, 2026
One of my fondest memories is that the last full sentence my dad spoke was to tell a visitor a…

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