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

Threshing Time

Audio Recordings, Cowboy Poetry, Farm, Nostalgia, Ranch Life, Relationships, Remembering / tagged Harvest / September 25, 2020 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

I remember at Christmas
getting a great threshing machine
A block of wood with wooden spools nailed to the side
but I loved it as I loved the threshing

All through the long summer days
I would walk the fields with my dog
At night my mother rubbed strong liniment
on four year old legs
Growing pains she said, although one always hurt more
and didn’t seem to grow any faster

And the grain grew too, and passed me, and was higher
than I was. And then the harvest and the wonder of it
falling to the binder, and the magic of the machine
as it tied the sheaves and ke-chunked them into the carrier

Then the stooking – little teepees covering the prairie again
and the golden warmth of everything

And the threshing machine; they wouldn’t let me too close
It might eat me like it ate those sheaves, and like the men
in the crew could eat, and they could eat
even when it rained

While I sat for hours, nose to wet window
watching the great gray dinosaur
deep in the timeless mists

And hot clear windless days when everything sang and
the belt slapped and the machine came to life again
and wagons were on both sides
and the big horses were standing strong and ready
and switching flies with dignity

The sun caught the arch of the long plume of straw and
the chaff lifting, and the old hands fed the machine in a
sort of easy sweat-oiled rhyme and the new hands stood
on the sheaves they tried to lift each time

And the old hands laughed, and the new hands laughed
and they were men together

Blue Eyed Boy

Audio Recordings, Farm, Nostalgia, Ranch Life, Remembering / tagged Childhood, Dogs / September 23, 2020 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Blue eyed boy
blasts off from breakfast
like a quail on a rail

Collie dog leaps on board
and they’re off across the prairie
barely touching the tops of hills

Sun gives warmth or cloud gives shade
all depending on his whim
birds and rocks and swaying grass
everything living embraces him

Burrs don’t stick and thorns don’t prick
even fences, joining in the play
happily turn their barbs away

Floating along on the wings of four
not long now till they slam that door

Author, about age 4, on the Saskatchewan ranch

Sisyphus and Ruth

Audio Recordings, Haiku / tagged mythology, RBG / September 21, 2020 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

You have been pushing
that rock uphill for so long
it’s his turn again

One more for the beloved RBG (Ruth Bader Ginsburg)

The Sadness of Arborists

Audio Recordings, News / tagged Grief, RBG / September 20, 2020 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Knowing that next year
their trees
will be trying to grow leaves
on phantom limbs

Rededicated to a grieving USA, mourning the loss of The Notorious RBG

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth_Bader_Ginsburg

Home for the Holidays

Audio Recordings / tagged Jewish New Year, RBG, Supreme Court / September 19, 2020 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

for Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Every year but this year
on the eve of Rosh Hashanah
family gather for the holy feast

This year it’s not so easy
but Ruth, I think, will be there

https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/nation/2020/09/19/ruth-bader-ginsburg-death-rosh-hashanah-brings-new-meaning/5832423002/

Fall Haiku #12

Audio Recordings, Haiku, Nature, Poems about Poetry / tagged Autumn / September 18, 2020 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Leaf by golden leaf
metaphor by metaphor
softly falls the fall

Photo by Humphrey Muleba on Unsplash

Waiting

Audio Recordings, Nature / tagged Autumn, Fall / September 16, 2020 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

The stillness of fall

is more still
than the stillness of winter

It is the stillness
of waiting for winter

Image by Momentmal from Pixabay

The Tattoos of Dorian Gray

Audio Recordings / tagged Aging, Secrets, Vulnerability / September 15, 2020 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Long sleeved and high necked shirts
could protect him from the crowd

But when he bathed the truth came out
in wrinkled cupids, moms and babes

Inspired by the novel The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

Image by Photorama from Pixabay

Limits of Poetry

Audio Recordings, Environment, Haiku, News, Poems about Poetry / September 14, 2020 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Orange doesn't rhyme
smoke smudges sunsets in the West
fake face in the East

Image by skeeze from Pixabay

1 Reply

The Ides of Marching

Audio Recordings / tagged Protest, Unrest, War / September 12, 2020 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Stopped
for the night
in a marked by X

Half way
on the way
to victory or defeat

Image by Hans Braxmeier from Pixabay

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Threshing Time
Blue Eyed Boy
Sisyphus and Ruth
The Sadness of Arborists
Home for the Holidays

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