Neil Meili

Zen Cowboy Poet & Freelance Philosopher

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A Neil a Day Poems

Earning the Knowing Nod

Audio Recordings, Relationships / tagged Community, Connections, Experience, Recognition / November 25, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

You have been to the same school
sat at the same desk with a tack on the seat
and a ruler
with a ruler rapping your knuckles raw

You have been equally
but differently broken and healed by love

You meet across a room or in a grocery or airplane aisle

They nod, you nod, you both smile

Modern Medicine It Ain’t

Audio Recordings, Cattle, Cows, Farm, Ranch Life / November 24, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

10 cc's of Carnation Milk

Inject it just beneath the skin
pink eye cured in a Hereford calf

Old wives remedies you say
maybe that's how they got that way

Reincarnation Milk

Audio Recordings, Family, Nostalgia, Remembering / tagged Connection, Flavor, Food / November 22, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

This only works for one generation
but memories of food can conjure them back

Every lemon meringue
in the world has mother in its color and clouds

Any key lime pie, Longhi's in Lahaina before the fire

All moussaka anywhere is Momma's on Mykonos

And even Carnation milk
which I never liked, brings Dad to the kitchen table

Cowversations

Audio Recordings, Cattle, Cowboy Poetry, Cows, Farm, Ranch Life / tagged Communication, Humor / November 21, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

One of the reasons I got out of ranching
was the long drought of good conversation

Cowhands
true to their fame are men of few words

Horses ain't bad
they will at least point their ears and pretend

But cows, it was the cows that did it
how they'd saucer eye like listening
while you chewed them out in detail
about all the dumb things that they'd done

Turn away to ruminate upon the lesson
and two days later kick you for no reason

Conversations with Horses

Audio Recordings, Farm, Ranch Life / tagged Animals, Communication / November 20, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

I never had a horse that talked to me
like Mister Ed on sixties TV

If I had I might have learned a lot

I did talk to them of course
but mostly by knee and rein and spur
and sometimes thank you for a job well done

As for messages for me, I can only imagine
- or count the number of times bucked off

Dances with Horses

Audio Recordings, Cowboy Poetry, Family, Farm, Ranch Life / tagged Horses / November 19, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

And what is the poem of Rusty
who slips at full gallop and picks up all four feet
and sets them down sure on the next dry spot

Of Lady so afraid of wire
she can buck fourteen hours tired
if a four inch chunk should strike a hoof

And the dance of the wild mare ikn the corral
who kicks and one foot goes by on each side of your head

And of the cold separated from mother's flank
by a gunny sack in the face and a quick gate
who turns a tight arc and comes back at you, and you see it in the eyes and duch and he sails over
taking out the top rail

And you hear that your father gave you
the first compliment you've ever hear of
by turning to the man beside him and saying

"The damned fool will get himself killed someday"

That Dog Won’t Hunt

Audio Recordings, Relationships / tagged Abuse, Bad behavior / November 18, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Just because your dog loves you
is no license to do
unforgivable things to others
expecting them to forgive you too

A Little to the Right

Audio Recordings, Relationships / tagged Communication, Misunderstanding, Understanding / November 17, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

How does the heron
learn about refraction
and that the fish is not
where the fish appears to be

It is a matter of survival I suppose

Like me learning the difference
and the angle of intent
between what you said
and what you meant

Sanctuary

Audio Recordings, Environment, Nature / tagged Birds, Contemplation, Peace, Reflection, Solitude / November 16, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Hard by Mount Allison U.
in New Brunswick Canada
lies a protected marshland
where students and birds
can come for quiet reflection

There's one watching
a heron watching a heron now

Photo credit: William Bullock

Lonely

Audio Recordings, Relationships / tagged Isolation, Sadness, Separation / November 15, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

If being different is lonely
and fake-the-same feels worse

And God too busy with people
with real problems in their prayers

And you start to feel like the boy
so ugly his mother had to tie
a pork chop around his neck
to get the dog to play with him

And this is the part of the poem
where helpful hints should appear

Sorry dear

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Pamela on Grocery Shopping in AustinDecember 5, 2025
Hi Neil! And Neil is still Neil! Hoping to see you and Dorsey in the new year. My poems have…
Nancy Fierstien on Don’t Judge A House By Its CoverDecember 3, 2025
Another terse verse way to capture the way I feel about living under a blue tin roof for almost 30…
Iudita Harlan on Longing for FamilyNovember 26, 2025
Neil Lovely poem. Sending love to you and Darcy. Iudita
Nancy Fierstien on Eyes of FriendsNovember 6, 2025
Lovin' this one, line after line!
Nancy Fierstien on Light on LeavesNovember 2, 2025
Yet another favorite of mine! How can I hold back this "THANK YOU!" ???

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