Neil Meili

Zen Cowboy Poet & Freelance Philosopher

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A Neil a Day Poems

Chivalry Was Not Dead But Damp

Audio Recordings, Relationships / July 30, 2022 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

It was a dark and stormy knight
that led his lame horse
through winter wet and counted out his woes

An unending driz
ran down his rusty helmet
and burned and blurred his visored eyes

He was as cross as the frayed cross on his tunic
and swearing oaths at all the oaths he'd sworn

Damsels, damn all damsels
their gratitude had seldom lasted
beyond the ride back to the castle

Today he felt more kinship with the dragon
and would have fain laid down his sword
at the mouth of any breath-warmed cave

Three Draft Horses

Audio Recordings, Family, Farm, Poems about Poetry, Ranch Life, Relationships / tagged Horses / July 29, 2022 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

On the ranch, ride before you walk
with big sister's brave behind my scared

Grandfather's big Clyde, top as wide as a table

The jackhammer hoofed plug at Al's in Idaho
while Dorsey gets to ride the silk-paced Arab
Chilalry is not dead, but it has a sore ass

May they all chomp
the hay of heaven while I flesh them

Go Gently

Audio Recordings, Farm, Ranch Life, Relationships / July 27, 2022 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

When you break horses and break land
you end up with broken horses and broken land
When you approach
with the reverence of a listening friend
It is amazing how far they are willing to carry you

Eulogy

Audio Recordings, Family / tagged Death, Faith, Love / July 26, 2022 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

My mother passes
from the womb of this life
to the new life of the next

It has been a difficult journey

My father is waiting for her
with two saddled horses

She is happy to see him
while still nervously scanning for Jesus
who she thought would be there to greet her

My father laughs

Plenty of time for that
in a place with no time

Let me help you up
onto this gentle roan
there's a sunset I'd like you to see

Good Company

Audio Recordings, Family / tagged Mother, Religion / July 25, 2022 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

eating God the way
a bear eats meat against winter - John Steinbeck

Though mother hungered for heaven
she did not wish to reside there alone

Got dad therefore Baptist drowned to wash away what he washed down

Dressed us often in Sunday best
to learn the answers to the entry test

And awaits our fates by the pearly gates

Foundation for Sainthood

Audio Recordings, Family / tagged Faith, History / July 24, 2022 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Today marked by a family reunion
and a visit to the church in Elora, Ontario

Mother’s Poem

Audio Recordings, Family, Farm, Ranch Life, Relationships, Remembering / July 23, 2022 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

1 Reply

Ball Lightning

Audio Recordings, Family, Nature / tagged Regret / July 22, 2022 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

In the front door out the back

A ball of lightning through the barn
in the story dad would tell

I wonder now if the light was white
and if it made a sizzling sound
as some who've seen one have described
All happened in a blink I guess, and gone
like this, and all the questions that I didn't ask

Pulling Pipe

Audio Recordings, Cattle, Cows, Family, Farm, Poems about Poetry, Ranch Life / July 21, 2022 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Trouble down the well
and me, my dad and my brothers
are Texas roughnecks
pulling, spinning and stacking pipe
pipe and rod and "Careful dammit!
If you drop that rod the well is shot"

We're Red Adair, fighting a fire
we're wet and muddy and cold and mad
and we've got to get it done by dark

The gold down there's not black but red
an iron rich sea hiding away
fro the pulling power of the prairie sun

Looking back fifty years from a poet's perch
I pull, spin and stack
metaphor and meaning
Back then it was just men
doing what they had to do
and white-faced cattle waiting

Father Fighting the Prairie Fire

Audio Recordings, Family, Farm, Ranch Life / July 20, 2022 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

All week
he came home while we slept
and left before we woke
leaving trails of courage and smoke

He's been gone a long time this time

Our early books
had pictures and stories
of a peaceful heaven and a red hot hell

Though none of the men on the fire-line
between the two to keep the children safe

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