Neil Meili

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Tag Archives: Childhood

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

Small Town Grief

Audio Recordings, News / tagged Childhood, Grief, Pespective / August 3, 2023 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

When a boy in our school died
from a word we could say but not spell
It was the only death to count

There was no TV to diminish by compare
and spread our grief so thin
it would not cover him

1 Reply

Back Again to Never Left

Audio Recordings, Nostalgia, Ranch Life, Remembering / tagged Childhood / June 18, 2023 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

A happy childhood can't be cured
- Hortense Calisher

And there we were are there
boy and dog and endless hills
and night
and home to a door never locked

Author’s boyhood home

Of Bears and Love

Audio Recordings, Relationships / tagged Childhood, Dreams, Fear, Love / February 26, 2023 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Sayings From an Old Ranch Kitchen

Audio Recordings, Family, Farm, Ranch Life, Remembering / tagged Childhood, Eating, Mother / February 11, 2023 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

"Clean off your plate
there are starving people in China"
"Take the last food from the bowls
we'll have a nice day tomorrow"
I never put it together this way
but the people in China
must have always had a nice day

Cookies on the Ranch

Audio Recordings, Family, Farm, Nostalgia, Ranch Life / tagged Baking, Childhood, Food, Mother / February 10, 2023 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Stars press their simple shapes into the sky - Dorianne Laux

Mom had shapers of thinnest tin
to make the stars and quarter moons

In a house this size and drafty
there was no way or wish to hide
from doors from the old wood stove
building building to the dawn of done

With Crayons

Audio Recordings / tagged Art, Childhood, Creativity, Joy / January 15, 2023 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

A child with crayons
multi coloured fountain
bathe in it today

Children with crayons
multi coloured fountains
swim with them today

Why Gund Doesn’t Make Toy Soldiers

Audio Recordings / tagged Childhood, Choice, Love, Toys, Training, War / January 3, 2023 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Photo Credit: Gund bears ‘Love’ and ‘Peace’ courtesy of Evelise Sandidge

Questions For the Next Séance

Audio Recordings, Family, Remembering / tagged Childhood, Communication, Death / November 4, 2022 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Dearest Mother;

Sorry to disturb you
in your well deserved bliss,
but here’s a short list
of things that I forgot to ask

And if it isn’t too much trouble
I’d like the answers as detailed as possible

It will be understandable
if you can’t conjure up a voice,
but one rap for yes, and two for no,
on a floating table won’t quite do

However, if you can look up Samuel Morse,
(who may well be bored and available),
he can give you a quick-study course
and I will dust off my old Boy Scout manual
I believe “talk to me” In Morse still becomes:

– •– •–•• –•– – – – – – – •

So, now that we’ve got the hang of it;

– What was the best day of your life
– What was your worst

– Your greatest triumph
– Your greatest disappointment

– What you are happiest that you did
– Saddest that you didn’t

Why exactly did my uncle shoot my dog
Whatever happened to my baseball card collection, with the rookie Mickey Mantle

and what is heaven like

A Funny Story

Audio Recordings, Family, Remembering / tagged Childhood, Humor / October 5, 2022 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

In the dream I say to brother Wally

You’re going to have to tell the story
or the milk I drank way back then
is going to come out my nose again

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