Neil Meili

Zen Cowboy Poet & Freelance Philosopher

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A Neil a Day Poems

Church Windows

Audio Recordings / tagged Fear, Work / December 27, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Someone, I think it was Rilke, said
Religion is like a window
you can see God through it
but it keeps you from touching him

Summer job at sixteen
removing for re-leading
panels of old stained glass
from Moose Jaw's St. Andrews church

Rickety extension ladder
up to a plank between the parapets
another ladder barely on it
and a long drop to the stone steps

Hands trembling, knees shaking
glad I was on the God side of the glass

Morning After Christmas Morning

Audio Recordings / tagged Christmas, Sleep / December 26, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Babes
in beds and mangers dreaming
while someone cleans the stable
and wrapping paper from the floor

Let them sleep their innocent sleep
they'll rise
soon enough with promises to keep

Prairie Boy’s Christmas

Audio Recordings, Cattle, Cows, Farm, Ranch Life / tagged Belief, Christmas, Faith / December 25, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

He has trouble imagining Magi
and the deserts they had to cross

But the warmth
of the stable is in his bones
and can easily relate to the babe

Living on an Island Many Called a Farm

Audio Recordings, Farm, Ranch Life, Travel / tagged Isolation, Story / December 24, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Sometimes a sailor from abroad
would cross the wide sea of sod

Telling to the adults tales
of cities, mountains and war

Though I had doubts at two
if any part of it was true

A Stoneboat Story

Audio Recordings, Farm, Ranch Life / December 23, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Rough planks across two wood-beam runners
low and tough enough to tip a heavy rock on
or haul the cleanings of the stalls in winter

Learning to stand in loose-kneed balance
full speed behind fast homing horse
across the frozen tracks and turds
on the way back to the barn

Later off Oahu Buff teaching me to surf
I think "Just like this"
until the big wave comes and says "Not quite"

The Joy of Movement

Audio Recordings / tagged Physicality, sensuality / December 22, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Putting aside for the moment
The giving and getting of midnight joy
a body in motion is a thing of beauty

There is the throwing and catching
of any ball or stick or baton or lariat
the leaping over and the crawling under
The lifting of a baby, the holding of a hand
the flow of skating on ice or skiing on snow
The strength of lift and the subtlety of touch
which brings us back around to midnight

Poems Over Their Skis

Audio Recordings, Poems about Poetry, Relationships / tagged Connection / December 21, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Poems belong to those that need them
Mario to Pablo Neruda in Il Postino

Sometimes poets and poems
think they know who needs them

Who it will change for the better
or who might laud them loudly

Well meaning though they might be
they've lost the plot if there was one

Let them open Neruda anywhere
and pull the string to loose the bow
or the gift he gave to you he did not know

Waxing Poetic

Audio Recordings, Poems about Poetry / December 20, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

With old wooden skis
you hot waxed the bottoms
and polished them til they shone and slid
It is an art and a craft learned and earned

In the days before lifts
you climbed back each time to the top

There is a joy in the well carved run
both in the doing and in the watching

Poets love metaphor and simile
love the waxing and the polishing

Seeking While Yet Fearing Fame

Audio Recordings / tagged Adoration, Fame, Fear, Stardom / December 19, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Groupies are fine
one or two at a time

for they bring a love
of such innocent ferocity
that it calls out for reciprocity

Even Marilyn could not sleep
with every soldier on a USO tour
the weight of their wanting
lifting her and pulling her down

Though the risk of such is slim
I carefully fence my egoings in

Trouble in Paradise

Audio Recordings, Relationships / tagged Death, Marriage / December 18, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

(for Alfred Huffstickler)

You were reading
at the Northwest Austin Borders
Line I remember went something like this

She wanted me to say forever, and so I thought, why not, I have said forever so many times before

But now dear Huff, now that you have stepped into forever

What will you say to all of them now

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NEIL MEILI on Grocery Shopping in AustinDecember 13, 2025
Thanks Pamela, Love to see some of your haiku and you and Pamela in the new year. All blessings, Neil…
pat psooy on Saturday Night in AustinDecember 6, 2025
Kinda like that better than the shining lights of Vegas
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

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