Neil Meili

Zen Cowboy Poet & Freelance Philosopher

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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

Earthworm Dance

Audio Recordings, Nature / tagged Spring / May 6, 2019 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Think about earthworms dancing
in the earth
like dolphins in the sea

Pretend you can see through the earth
speed them up a little in your mind
watch the grace of their movements

Play your favourite music
watch them dance

And while they dance they eat the dark
and leave lightness behind

2 Replies

A Blessing

Audio Recordings / tagged Laughter / May 5, 2019 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

May you fall into the dimples
of the laughing Buddha

Today is #WorldLaughterDay. Take a little time to do something that brings you joy.

1 Reply

Athabasca

Environment, Nature / May 4, 2019 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Along the Icefields Parkway
(prettiest road in the world)
winding from Lake Louise to Jasper
lies a glacier that feeds three oceans
(Atlantic, Pacific, and Arctic)

It takes a hundred years for a snowflake
falling on the top to make it to the bottom

Before a snowflake that falls today
finishes its journey the glacier may be gone

On the other side of the road in spring
water falls down a long face of rock
They call it the weeping wall
it may still be there

1 Reply

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Anonymous on Rule BritannicaNovember 6, 2026
Amen to that.
Sandi Hebley on Ready for WinterOctober 26, 2026
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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
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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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