Neil Meili

Zen Cowboy Poet & Freelance Philosopher

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An Invitation

Uncategorized / September 21, 2018 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Neil wanders the world in awe – Mirrors and metaphor everywhere. You can join him on this journey with a Poem in your Inbox every day. CLICK HERE to start today

Not Quite Sainthood

Audio Recordings / tagged Death, Humor, Last Word, Presidents, Trump / January 14, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Jimmy Carter was
an eminently decent man

but not above living this long
just to throw half-mast shade
on an inauguration parade

Image courtesy of The Carter Center

Election in 17 Syllables

Audio Recordings, Haiku, News / tagged Choice, Democracy, Trump / January 13, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Voters had a voice
for democracy or bread
they opted for bread

Poems in Bottles

Audio Recordings, Poems about Poetry / January 12, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Not the ones you find
curled up with the worm
in the bottom of a bottle

The ones you send
from your dry desert isle
tight wrapped and firmly corked
hoping to get or give some HELP

Some to crash on a lava shore
black as Poe's raven's nevermore

Some apropos to
the muddy bank of the river Styx
odes to the dead long an idée fixe

Some to open and read and fall in love
and try to swim to him who couldn't swim

One driven back by wind and wave
to the poet's feet when only it could save

Poetry Immersion Therapy

Audio Recordings, Poems about Poetry, Travel / tagged Art & Artists, Discovery, Growth / January 11, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

In Canada me and Graham
the only live people writing poems
and his were better than mine

In Austin everybody wrote poetry
although some called it music
and all of them were better than me
and that's the perfect place to be

So I followed them from mic to mic
and let their water clear my mind

And other bards from other lands
came to drink from that Barton Spring

Maynard Download

Audio Recordings, Poems about Poetry / tagged Connection, Death, Guides, Technology / January 10, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Maynard and Leanne
were love and learning
writers teachers and seers

Leanne had gone on
leaving Maynard her learning
you know how it is these days
one iphone touching another

All afternoon he shared stories
some in words, some in code
one iphone touching another

Not sure about the passwords
but if you lean close to this poem

https://pathoftheheartwriting.com/guidance

You Think Therefore I Am

Audio Recordings / tagged Attention, Fear, Insecurity, Social Media, Trump / January 9, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

William Stafford's mother
spoke of some people in town as
"So boring you get tired of them
even when they're not around"

Is it fear that that is us
that wakes us all a-sweat at two a.m.
to send out all cap tweets
hoping their echoes will make us real

Poets in Peacetime

Audio Recordings, News, Poems about Poetry / tagged Commentary, Protest, Readiness / January 8, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Poets like soldiers
are of little value in times of peace
But it is important that
they maintain their readiness
with a certain degree of discipline
some exercises with live ammunition
and long marches with heavy packs

Letter to Erato

Audio Recordings, News, Poems about Poetry / tagged Change, Current Events, Inspiration, Muse, Politics, Protest, Trudeau, Trump / January 7, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Dear Muse, What do we do's now

From your mountain
you have seen much peace and war
with saints, tyrants, and much more
and with every age gifted verse to fit it

From here this one looks like a doozy
with faces and words painted to deceive
and new forms daily formed to disinform

Your poet flocks mill round your mountain
prey to false shepherds and real wolves

Shall we bring back Basho, no
or Ali to sting like a butterfly float like bee
or roll back sunsets cowboys have rode into

No, and no, these days call
for new forms of protest and of praise
these days have us on our knees - so please

Echoes

Audio Recordings, Poems about Poetry / tagged Connection, Greatest Hits, Popularity / January 6, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

I must go down to the sea again
- John Masefield "Sea Fever"

I must go down to the sea again
hold my ear to a conch curved shell
and listen to the surf converse

John Masefield
poet laureate thirty seven years
reading the same poem
to different seas of shining faces

Shore and shell in conversation

Click here to read “Sea Fever” by John Masefield, Poet Laureate of England from 1930 to 1967

The Presence of Absence

Audio Recordings, Poems about Poetry, Relationships / tagged Connection, Thought / January 5, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

The leap in the line
tween the gift and the get
that feeds your brain its bread
where the poet lives though dead

The nothing-there space
between the leaves and leaves of trees
has a life of its own with every breeze
Meet you there tween the Ah and the Ha

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Gail on In-TuitionJanuary 2, 2025
Love it! “The cost of this is only in the not.”
Ken Christopher on Missing the MysteryDecember 30, 2024
Yes, the Mystery is what keeps it exciting
Ken Christopher on Christmas CardsDecember 29, 2024
Yep, the sleigh got us to town on train day and me to school every day, the poem is a…
Anonymous on Why Children Are ChristmasDecember 23, 2024
So simple, so captivating! Nice Neil to give me the feel :) Murray A
Ken Christopher on John DeereDecember 21, 2024
Love it❤️

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