Author Archives: neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

I AM A PELICAN

Audio Recordings, Environment, Nature / tagged , , , , , / / by

I AM A PELICAN

I have flown over the dinosaurs dying
through the ash of the meteors crashing

I have swam in the ice floes melting
I have eaten the first fish walking

I have felt the poles a shifting
in the magnets in my head

I have seen the white man and the red
I have seen the old wives dead

I have felt the pull of the settlers need
and tasted the poisons of their greed

I have heard the earth a groaning
I have felt the earth in pain

I have seen the Rainbow Warriors
dance the vision back again

And I fly and swim and wait
and pray they’re not too late

THE PELICAN PROJECT

Audio Recordings, Poems about Poetry / tagged , , , , , / / by

THE PELICAN PROJECT

In July 2000 New Dance Horizons in Regina
Saskatchewan put together a presentation for
“Dance and the Child International”

It consisted of dance, song and poetry
performed by about thirty young people
many from Canada’s “First Nations”

I had the privilege of coaching and guiding
them as they wrote their own poems

Following are some poems that I wrote
for samples of metaphor, and for the awe and
respect I felt for their talent and their courage

Also, I was totally star struck by the grace and
beauty of Robin, the director and dance
instructor who goes around quoting Neruda
and holds my disowned love of movement
so wrote poems for and about her as well

MARHESHA’S DREAM

Audio Recordings, Personal Growth / tagged , / / by

MARHESHA’S DREAM

She opens a door
into a huge domed stadium filled with men
women and children, in costumes of all the ages

She knows that they are all there for her
to set up any drama at any time
to learn any lesson she needs to learn

She closes the door
and walks down the corridor

Another door to a storage closet
Inside big barrels labeled
“PLOT THICKENER”

EAST OF KUNDALINI

Audio Recordings, Personal Growth / tagged , , , / / by

EAST OF KUNDALINI

Let in the love and give it when you can
See the pain and relieve it when you can
Get into religions and beyond them if you can
Follow all the Gurus and pass them if you can

Dive into each teaching for all the essence there
And strip and strip and strip until you’re bare

But keep my friends I pray a little sense of fun
For when the doings and undoings are all done
and the livings and dyings are all done

Somewhere East of Kundalini
The sun with rise _____ and _____ You will be the sun

LOUIS AND SUZANNE

Audio Recordings, Relationships / tagged , , , / / by

LOUIS AND SUZANNE

Suzanne gets cancer
she gets cancer real bad

The doctors get out their big guns
They wage war with everything they’ve got

The cancer laughs at the doctors
It breaks out on many new fronts

The doctors, defeated, suggest surrender
Louis and Suzanne go to Mexico instead

Suzanne drinks fresh juices and does cleanses
Louis quits his job and takes care of Suzanne

Suzanne gets well

Louis takes care of many people
He took care of people in asbestos mines

For years he has not slept well
and he does not breathe well in the mornings

The doctors are treating him for sleep apnoea
Early this year he has a bad cough

The doctors do X-rays, Louis has cancer
Too much asbestos, ten years growing

It is too late for the doctors, or Mexico
Louis dies, life is funny

THE UNCAGED BIRD

Audio Recordings, Poems about Poetry / tagged , / / by

THE UNCAGED BIRD
(For Maya Angelou)

Sometimes we read
because we cannot not, because we need
to find that one story, one friend
one note of truth

Sometimes a young girl, repeatedly abused
hides
“I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings”
under her mattress

And keeps on living because
she takes it out after he has gone
and talks to Maya, who understands

DEBBIE – SIX MONTHS LATER

Poems about Poetry, Relationships / tagged , , / / by

DEBBIE – SIX MONTHS LATER

How can I write of your death
and writing make it real
how can I not and ever hope to heal

How can I write of the crab
without a hatred more than buzzard red
who will at least not eat you till you’re dead

How can my heart and hands be empty
with fullness of gifts I cannot give
How can it be you do not live

How like a vampire do I walk the night
and in a mirror no reflection see
Without a you where is the me?