HERMIT ENVY
The thing about being alone
is finding someone to lie to
about how good it feels
Author Archives: neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com
WRITING THE AUSTRALIA TRIP
WRITING THE AUSTRALIAN TRIP
We went to teach, we went to learn
we did a lot of both and more of some
We met amazing people – they met us
perhaps none will be the same again
Details I leave for further poems
which I hurry to hurry to write
before the ripples rippling out
are lost
clockwise and counter clock
down the toilet bowl of time
ON THAT NOTE
ON THAT NOTE
Classical music fills the car
as we home from the airport in traffic
Our host is from Bulgaria
he plays the trombone, his wife the violin
sometimes they tour, sometimes he drives cab
He loves Austin, he loves his wife
Ahead and around
drivers speed and weave
I wonder what they’re listening to
WHERE ARE ALL THE MYSTICS NOW
WHERE ARE ALL THE MYSTICS NOW
According to Pir Vilayat Khan
Islam is the cocoon and Sufism is the butterfly
True of Christian mystics too
and all the saints, named and not
that bless each moment of the day
Every cocoon however
does not unfold a butterfly
In every congregation you will find
praying mantis – long may they pray
and wasps that swarm and sting
PATRICIA AT NINETY
PATRICIA AT NINETY
Patricia Fiske
has just passed ninety
on the way to a hundred with her foot still on the gas
sometimes
with a little help
from some premium ninety octane in a glass
let’s all raise one to her today
REMEMBERING VALDY
REMEMBERING VALDY
Play me a rock and roll song
or don’t play me no song at all
I might not remember your name
but I know you’re a friend all the same
when you put the needle down
on that record by the bed
Everything that still moves moves
and memories come flooding back
Girls and cars and beer
as every year becomes that year
Thank you dear
MISSING LEONARD
MISSING LEONARD
Leonard Cohen is gone
He doesn’t call, he doesn’t write
So huddle with me now
fellow worshipers and weepers
Huddle with me now
round the poem and the song
and listen for the breadcrumb
and the hint of old perfume
that speak
of other ways to God
than through the holes
in Jesus and the goddess
AN OTHER WORD
AN OTHER WORD
There’s an other word for color
there’s an other word for creed
there’s an other word for other
in their tastes for Adam’s deed
There’s an other word for circling
all those wagons filled with fear
when the arrows dipped in other
are aimed at you this year
TRANSMITTAL
TRANSMITTAL
They talk about degrees of separation
With apologies to Kevin Bacon
I like to think in degrees of connection
This week
when I helped Madeline Albright
down from that one tricky step
it was also everyone at the UN
and anyone who was anyone
in politics and power for thirty years
President Ford was a nice man
with a football players hand
that had shaken more than a few
And when the Queen Mother in her 90s
was our guest in the Saskatchewan Hotel
I held her hand in both of mine, a little
longer than called for in the book of protocol
I wanted to make sure that Churchill got through
AURORA BOREALIS
AURORA BOREALIS
The have found Franklin’s ship
a hundred years frozen in ice
Franklin and Franklin’s men
cold, hungry and can-lead crazy
blinded by the glare and the glory
Maybe this is how
we should paint the ceilings of the dying