Neil Meili

Zen Cowboy Poet & Freelance Philosopher

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Spring in Moose Jaw

Audio Recordings, Farm, Ranch Life / tagged Aging, Retirement / June 12, 2026 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

In the city
retired farmers still watch
the weather

In greening front yards
wooden ducks nailed to
white posts

Wings spinning
backwards

A Prairie Villanelle

Audio Recordings, Farm, Nostalgia, Poems about Poetry, Ranch Life, Relationships, Remembering, Travel / June 11, 2026 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

If prairie wheels again had I
I'd chew the gravel and the air
with prairie roads to fly

I'd plume the earth into the sky
to show them I was there
if prairie wheels again had I

Past places where dead neighbours lie
I'd not linger who would dare
with prairie roads to fly

Dust to dust gets in your eye
I'd look for other things to share
if prairie wheels again had I

Then greener farmyards I'd pass by
in mem-mirages free of care
with prairie roads to fly

I'd roll past all that makes you cry
afloat in sunsets clear and fair
if prairie wheels again had I
with prairie roads to fly

What the Hell Villanelle

Poems about Poetry / June 10, 2026 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

I thought, oh what the hell
since everything is but a dance
I'll just write a villanelle

Though I may not ronde half so well
as the spinning peasants of old France
I thought, oh what the hell

Left footed stories I can tell
though you might laugh I'll take a chance
I'll just write a villanelle

Though it may not cast young Dylan's spell
around his father's fierce-teared glance
I thought, oh what the hell

Though it may not a million copies sell
it may win your love perchance
I'll just write a villanelle

It may not toll Gray's churchyard knell
others have failed in that romance
I thought, oh what the hell
I'll just write a villanelle

Photo by Federica Giusti on Unsplash

1 Reply

Invitation By Flower

Audio Recordings, Nature, Relationships / tagged Connection, Love / June 9, 2026 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Little lantana growing
through old bench boards

Saying Come sit with me
and we will be flowers three

Let us smile at one another
like there will never be another

Roses in My Rear View Mirror

Audio Recordings, Family, Farm, Nostalgia, Ranch Life, Relationships, Remembering / tagged memories / June 8, 2026 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

(and a few bluebonnets too)

There's a family always laughing
There are girls, and they're all smiling

There's a collie dog a roaming
chasing gophers down their holes

There's a ranch with grass all greening
fifteen minutes after rain

Maybe you can go home again

The Road Less Re-travelled

Audio Recordings, Nostalgia, Remembering / tagged Depression, Forgiveness, Grief, Regret, Sadness / June 7, 2026 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Giving up hope for a better past
has been recommended by many
for forgiveness and for happiness

Easy enough to say when the sun
is shining on the road you're on
but what of dark and rainy nights
with the wipers scratching the glass
what of sleepless photo albums rich
with pictures that you didn't get to take

Happiness is fine for givers of advice
for those of all of us flipping pages
some forgiveness would be very nice

The Albums

Audio Recordings, Family, Nostalgia, Relationships, Remembering / tagged Aging, Connection, Pictures / June 6, 2026 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Mother's shrinkage was marked by domicile

House, apartment, retirement and nursing home
shedding at each move, furniture, china and art
except for, and never, the old photo albums
heavy in padded leather brown and green

Each visit when conversation stuttered to a stall
(Religion all but Baptist drowned and what use is weather without crops)
out would come the albums
and in we all would dive
for pennies bright and shiny
at the bottom of the pool

Here's one from 1958
How young the queen looked then

1 Reply

Cousins Round the Campfire

Audio Recordings, Family, Relationships / June 5, 2026 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Green twig pals by blaze
one will bend up one bend down
one will tell the town

Author age 12 with cousins Wayne and Lyle

Cousin Wayne

Audio Recordings, Family, Remembering / tagged Alcohol, Death, Innocence, Regret / June 4, 2026 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

When Wayne was thirteen
he had the finest blondest hair
the finest features and the finest mind
of all the cousins round

A city boy and cooler about everything than all of us
until we took him hunting

When his first shot hit the rabbit
he ran and cried and held it til it died

At eighteen he quit school with A grades
a month before graduation to get a jump on a job
met a girl and bragged of achievement on first date

Over achievement it turned out to be
quick marriage, quick, two children, three

Army for security, liquor for the pain
it was twenty years before I saw him again

He was in a downstairs bar
sitting there as coarse and thick as adobe brick

I wanted to roll it all back
reach in for the lost fineness and yank it all inside out

And hold him like the rabbit when he cried
still innocent when it died

Copper Left Her Laugh

Audio Recordings, Relationships, Remembering / tagged Joy, Loss, Memory / June 3, 2026 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

It is on her answering machine
It is in the hearts of a thousand friends
As she laughs at death or with it

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Sandi Hebley on What the Hell VillanelleJune 10, 2026
Had to go look up “villanelle.” 😏
Sandi Hebley on The AlbumsJune 6, 2026
💕 I love our old albums!
Sandi Hebley on JudyJune 1, 2026
😢 Hugs!
Kimberly Heinrich on The Other WellMay 31, 2026
Neil: THANK YOU for this!! Love it!! You are the best!!!💕💕
Sandi Hebley on Timmy’s Down the WellMay 29, 2026
🤗 Love this!

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