Author Archives: neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com
Judy
September is Suicide Awareness and Prevention Month – here is hoping friendship and poetry can help.
On That Note
An Invitation
Neil wanders the world in awe – Mirrors and metaphor everywhere. You can join him on this journey with a Poem in your Inbox every day. CLICK HERE to start today
New Book – Hot Off the Press
Fishing Old Wives Lake is a collection of stories and reflections, told through poetry, about growing up on a ranch in the 40s, 50s and 60s and Neil’s wanderings to the present day. It explores relationships with nature, family, friends and neighbors with some nostalgia, a little insight, and a healthy dose of cowboy humor.
Whether this is a trip back to your own childhood or to a place you’ve never been this book will surround you with the sights, sounds, tastes and smells of life on the ranch, connecting you with that pace of life and place in time.
Contact us to purchase your copy.
Ebook and Large Print Editions coming soon.
Fishing Old Wives Lake is published by Blue Accordion Press
ISBN: 978-1-9994330-0-0 Published August 1, 2018
288pg CAN $19.99
FIELD OF VISION
FIELD OF VISION
Paranoid farmer
deep in the gold of a sunflower field
morning and evening aware that he is being watched
Narcissist son by his side basking in the glow
DOING THE WORK
DOING THE WORK
Dark nights of the soul may come again
This time I will have more candles
A LONG WAY FROM TOWN
A LONG WAY FROM TOWN
This summer
I will go back to the farm
turn out the yard lights
in the dark of the moon
and look up in four-year-old awe
with a smile
the Milky Way will remember
OFF TO SCHOOL
OFF TO SCHOOL
They sent me off to school today
round-roofed lunchpail packed
with all five stages of grief
Four layer sandwich of
denial
anger
bargaining
and depression
and an apple of acceptance
I don’t think I’ll eat the apple
WHAT YOU MISSED BY NOT GOING TO A ONE ROOM SCHOOL
WHAT YOU MISSED BY NOT GOING
TO A ONE ROOM SCHOOL
Your dad’s initials
jackknifed deep in a desk now yours
The worst teacher in the world
all day every long day for three years
The best teacher in the world
all day every short day for the next one
Watching other kids get the strap
being watched by them when you got it
Beating the big kids in the spelling bee
taking a beating at recess for your trouble
Melting crayons on the tin protector
three feet from the coal stove burn
Home-grown tomatoes sogging
through home-baked bread
Clapping blackboard brushes
upwind of the cough-filled cloud
Green Dust-Bane and a barn broom
pushed across an oiled wood floor
All your enemies, all your friends
no more than twenty feet away