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 →

I Go Where the Wild Goose Goes

Travel / September 3, 2019 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Smiling tip of the V
at the start of every trip

Last bird on the left
dragging my feathers
home

A Holy Error

Haiku / September 2, 2019 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Making a scarecrow
in the image of Francis
the monk lost his crop

CABBIES OF ATHENS

Audio Recordings, Travel / tagged Greece / September 1, 2019 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Chaos pounds over dead civilizations
horns blare battle cries, fists shake the air

Taxi driver warriors slash and stab
and play pirate with the meter

And woe befall the coward fare
who doubts their courage and their skill
by any attempt to buckle up that belt

Momma in Mykonos

Audio Recordings, Travel / August 31, 2019 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

marolina says, enjoy the room
my eighty two year old mother
lives on the first floor under your stairs
call on her if you need anything

momma doesn’t understand our English
but most important that we understand
she could understand, but chooses not to

She also knows that her daughter
must rent the rooms above her head
but she will not look up

In Greece

Audio Recordings, Poems about Poetry, Travel / tagged mythology / August 30, 2019 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

In Greece I remember and meet myself everywhere
I am Socrates questioning
I am the athlete striving, the architect planning
the builder building, the potter shaping
the sculptor seeking, the warrior dying
and the poet pointing

In Greece
I am all men and all gods as well
and I remember how many times, in this life alone
I have pushed the rock endlessly uphill
carried the world on my shoulders
had my liver eaten by the savage bird

How many times
I have fallen in love with my own reflection
reached out for the sweet grapes and sweet water
to find them moving always beyond my grasp
been forced to echo only what others have said
tied myself to the mast to resist the siren’s call

Fought in a thousand wars full out on the open field or sea
or hidden in the belly of a wooden horse

Islands

Relationships / August 29, 2019 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

No man is an island
though every woman be

The coves are warm
the sirens sweet
but always the sea
the sea

Chinese Restaurant

Nostalgia, Ranch Life, Remembering, Travel / August 28, 2019 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Sorry John Donne
but some men may be islands

or castaways
in small prairie towns
fifty miles by bad road
from any other of their race

Tall walled booths along one side
twisted-wire chairs and tables too
my father and his friends had coffee
I think mine was cream soda

We may have eaten there
but I don’t remember
certainly at five or six
I would not have imagined
that we were as strange to him
as he was to us

All I ever knew
of the inner man
was the pungent foreignness
of the old two-holer out back
Fast forward six years or so
to small town of Mossbank
on the south side of the lake

A chubby twelve year old
sits in a low walled booth
with his best buddies
and another Chinese man
in another Chinese café
serves up Vanilla Cokes
(when vanilla still had alcohol)
and marks our tabs with
Chinese signs

I asked him what my three mean

Big – Small – Happy

1 Reply

Black Beauty

Audio Recordings, Farm, Nostalgia, Ranch Life, Remembering / tagged Cats / August 27, 2019 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

When we moved to Grandfather’s
old farm
no one had been living there for a while
and all the cats had gone wild

We found a litter of kittens
hidden deep in a corner of the loft
and among them
the most beautiful black and white kitten

Spitting and crouching under the eaves
she scratched us all to the bone
If I’d been a tree there would
have been six rings

Much persistence and we got her out
much time and love and we tamed her
if one ever really tames a cat
Best cat ever
adopted by our cousins when we moved
and one of the things we most looked forward
to on our visits was Black Beauty and her newest of who knew how many litters

The tomcats in that town were also
excellent judges of beauty

For Victor

Uncategorized / August 26, 2019 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

The only trick an old dog can learn is how to be an old dog
The minimum turns one has to take before lying down for that nap
That a bark is as good as a chase for keeping squirrels off the deck
And that after all these years of standing up for your standing friends you've likely earned their kneeling by you now.

3 Replies

Growing Into It

Audio Recordings, Nostalgia, Personal Growth / August 25, 2019 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Remember all those hand-me-ups
all at least two sizes too big
mother bought for you

You look like a clown but don’t dare frown
it’s frugal and wise so don’t roll your eyes

“Be careful, be careful please”
but you’re all elbows and knees

Before they half fit they all look like shit
so it’s back to the store to try it once more
and your behind is behind two sizes again

Childhood patterns are hard to break

Growing out of school, marriage, and every
job I’ve ever had before I really got it
before I was even big enough to fit

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.

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…

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 Loss Love Mother Music Nature Perspective Poetry Prairie Psychology Ranch Life Regret Religion Seasons sensuality Spring Trees War Winter Wisdom

©2015 Neil Meili. All Right Reserved.

Theme Designed By ThemeVan | Powered by WordPress

Loading Comments...

Write a Comment...

Email

Name

Website