Neil Meili

Zen Cowboy Poet & Freelance Philosopher

Skip to content

Home
Contact
Neil’s Books
Poems
Kind Words
A Neil a Day Poems

Author Archives: neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Post navigation

← Older posts

Newer posts →

First Poem

Audio Recordings, Poems about Poetry, Remembering / tagged Illness, Loneliness / August 25, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

The summer I was twelve or thirteen
I had, at the same time
whooping cough and mumps

Every cough was fire
and unfair fate and gargling razor blades

It was summer, and I laid six weeks on a cot
in a screened porch and watched kids play by

Many years later I found, and lost again
a poem scribbled on a Rexall drugstore bag

A short rant with attempted humor at the end

What surprises and delights me now
when all was despair and nothing could be done
I was brought to poetry, and saved by a pun

In the Beginning

Audio Recordings, Poems about Poetry, Ranch Life / tagged Birth / August 24, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Small town doctor
tired and out of sorts
resenting a 3:00 am delivery
and snapping at his helping nurse

Stands little in awe of the first born son
come to save the ranch

One wonders if the promise of a poet
would have outweighed his desire for his bed

Hospital in Gravelbourg, Saskatchewan

What Time

Audio Recordings, Poems about Poetry / tagged Aging, Connections / August 23, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

"I like the feeling of words doing as they want to do and as they have to do" - Gertrude Stein

Can a photograph stop time

Do hours spent fishing
count or not count in length of life

Can east-west Concorde add
or harps in heaven be heard
without space between the notes

How long can a poem
write itself before it mentions it to me

Flying the Concorde

Audio Recordings, Flight, Nostalgia, Pilots, Travel / August 22, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

I am not immune to the desire
to wind the stem of old time back
and with as much success as most

Except with the Concorde flew the sky
and I, pilot to pilot in the cockpit stood
and watched the earth reverse for me
on a flight from London to DC

What have I done you ask
with the slice of time I stole

Saved it in a bank of cloud
above the ocean eight miles up
where I can go if I ever wish
to write a check for a smile or a kiss

Flying Into Denver

Audio Recordings, Flight, Travel / tagged Snow / August 21, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Flying into Denver
starboard seat October

Mountains as white and light
as mom's meringue resting on a foothills crust

The Plane Was Late

Audio Recordings, Flight, Travel / August 20, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

If anyone had said

If you wait
three hours in the Regina airport
and sit in a front left window seat
we'll fly a route around the storms
so you can watch a gibbousing moon
shine off the South Saskatchewan river
and the Red Deer meet it as it curls up
to the north and east from Medicine Hat

I'd have taken that deal in a Moose Jaw minute

Waxwings

Audio Recordings, Flight, Nature / tagged Birds, Joy, Spring / August 19, 2025 / 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

Icarus Are Us

Audio Recordings, Flight / tagged Ambition, Failure, Hubris, Pride / August 18, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

All wings are wax
that are made by man
and will not to heaven take him

How Fallen Angels

Audio Recordings, Haiku / tagged Blame, Sin / August 17, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

How fallen angels
often insist they were tripped
and bad guys done it

1 Reply

Unremember That

Audio Recordings, Relationships / tagged Disappointment, Disillusionment, Information, Truth / August 16, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Tell me things I won't mind forgetting
Amy Hempel - "Reasons to Live"

Though nowadays it might be wise
to treat all news as lies
obits and dead babies still seep through

And that thing you said about my perfect friend
that modified the modifier and the teller too
please tell me
that weren't true lest I lose not one friend but two

1 Reply

Post navigation

← Older posts

Newer posts →

Search

Neil’s Latest Book Available in Paperback and Large Print Edition though Amazon worldwide

Social

View zencowboypoet’s profile on Facebook
View @meilineil’s profile on Twitter
View neilmeili’s profile on Instagram

Want More Poetry? Sign Up Here.

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!
Sandi Hebley on Dad and Death at WarAugust 4, 2025
😢
Sandi Hebley on One for the AuntiesAugust 3, 2025
Wow!

Audio Recordings
Cattle
Cowboy Poetry
Cows
Environment
Family
Farm
Flight
Haiku
Limerick
Manure
Nature
News
Nostalgia
Personal Growth
Pilots
Poems about Poetry
Ranch Life
Relationships
Remembering
String Too Short To Save
Travel
Uncategorized

Tags

Aboriginal Aging Alcohol Art Art & Artists Autumn Beauty Birds Childhood Communication Connection Covid19 Death Dogs Dreams Faith Family Fear First Nations Friendship Gratitude Grief Healing Hope Horses Humor Love Mother Music Nature Perspective Poetry Politics Prairie Psychology Ranch Life Regret Religion sensuality Solitude Spring Trump War Winter Wisdom

©2015 Neil Meili. All Right Reserved.

Theme Designed By ThemeVan | Powered by WordPress

Loading Comments...

Write a Comment...

Email

Name

Website