Neil Meili

Zen Cowboy Poet & Freelance Philosopher

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If You Don’t Know Snow

Audio Recordings, Relationships / tagged Compassion, Forgiveness, Grace, Peace, War / December 15, 2023 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

If you don't know snow
forgiveness is an empty word

With dynamite he tried
to open up a drifted road

It absorbed the blow complete
and expanded back to fill the hole

May your friendships softly follow

The Lady Who Eats Snow

Audio Recordings / tagged Alcohol, Dreams / December 14, 2023 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

There is a lovely sad lady in Texas
who eats snow in her dreams
writes about young wolves
and the order of the hunt

During the long dark winter
the lady who eats snow
grows larger and nearer to herself

The ice of the river is in her glass
she is two margaritas short of a howl

Soon she will dream
of alpha wolves
and water

Gracelets

Audio Recordings, Nature / tagged Beauty, Delight, Magic, Words / December 13, 2023 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Because Gloria needed a new word
for those brief magic shining moments

A word for when the fox was looking over her shoulder as she sketched in the woods

A word for when the pure white horse trailing black reins came thundering past her and a friend on a Snow White day

For the sunsets that cover the whole sky
double rainbows when grandmothers die
and a circular rainbow that held you and I

Sheet lightning eating its tail in a circle
Northern lights that start in a point over your head and shower around you

For the magic of weaving our bracelets when we need a reminder of magic in each of our lives and each other

Because of all this, it is now your word too

Thank you Gloria

1 Reply

The Richness of Poor Cousins

Audio Recordings, Family, Nature / tagged Creativity, Expression, Growth, Trees / December 12, 2023 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

A rose by any other name
might be a mountain ash

Ain't no big thing to sing
when spring and summer sing

No big thing to scent the air
when all your friends are fair

But when the fall and winter come
and all the limbs and fingers numb

Who dare be red when all are brown

Mountain Ash or Rowan trees are members of the rose family (genus sorbus of the family rosaceae). They grow throughout the cool temperate regions of North America, Europe and Asia.

A Few Remaining Relatives

Audio Recordings / tagged Aging, Birds, Connection, Migration / December 11, 2023 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Spoke to Joy in Saskatchewan today
She informs me that she is
relatively healthy, relatively mobile
and relatively happy

That the sunrises and sunsets
are much like they have always been
and stopping by our lake on their way south
the largest flock of swans she's ever seen

How He Read Himself Right Off The Ranch

Audio Recordings, Farm, Personal Growth, Ranch Life / tagged Education / December 10, 2023 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

He’d had some teachers growing up
that opened some gates that never closed

so every time he took a load of cows
to town he brought back a load of books
and the ranch
got smaller as the world got bigger

When a horse takes to chewing
corral rails (folks call it cribbing)
you pretty much have to shoot him
or let him go

And that’s how he got away

For Mary Who Loves Horses

Audio Recordings, Cows, Farm, Nature, Ranch Life, Relationships / December 9, 2023 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

I have ridden the fence line
without believing in fences

I have been one with the movement of horse
the strength and speed of horse
the grace of horse and the soul of horse

I have been one with the wind
and the high rolling hills
and the sky

I have stepped down
with my hands filled with staples and pliers

For the welfare of cattle and neighbours
who still have need of believing in fences

Disarmament

Audio Recordings, News / tagged Gun Control, Guns, Mental Illness, Violence / December 8, 2023 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Tuesday
an untreated mental case
pops his parents with a pistol
in San Antone and heads for Austin
where he puts some slugs in strangers
including two policemen
and a guy on a bike

The Venus de Milo
must have had bad days
but she never slapped anyone

Tuning Forks

Audio Recordings, Poems about Poetry / tagged Encouragement, Energy, Inspiration, Vibration / December 7, 2023 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

When life and writing have
fallen into earth-f illed holes

When bootstraps pulling up
need someone else to pull them

Stafford or Rumi or Nolan wait
a reading away from music again

Humming with Neruda or Oliver or Haf iz
mud falls from boots and stars come out

Why Not the Beautiful Words

Audio Recordings, Poems about Poetry / tagged Childhood, Delight, Language, Whimsy / December 6, 2023 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Why don't use just the beautiful words
Why not cast out a net and bring
back only those that sing

Why would we use the English for butterfly
doesn't that sound like a dairy related event

Why use the German schmetterling
doesn't that have a schledhammer ring

Wouldn't Italian farfalla, Spanish mariposa or the Portuguese borboleta be betta

Why not the tres French papillon
does it not taste on the tongue to you
like air and nectar and dew

Why don't we save bats for hitting balls
and for insulation for our house
would it not be much more fitting
to flit with the fledermaus

Are there not a thousand languages or more
do they not all hold jewels in their core

Why not let the children choose

Are their hearts not our purest tuning forks
are they not ourselves more clear
do they not still resonate with all
they speak and feel and hear

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Sandi Hebley on Ready for WinterOctober 26, 2026
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Thanks for the story Sandi, And bet he is and that I would have liked him Neil
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One of my fondest memories is that the last full sentence my dad spoke was to tell a visitor a…
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Ha!!!

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