Neil Meili

Zen Cowboy Poet & Freelance Philosopher

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Singing in Showers and Cars

Audio Recordings, Farm, Nostalgia, Ranch Life / tagged Joy, Music / December 6, 2024 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Kenny had a booming voice
and could carry a tune
and anyone who couldn't

Singing in the shower
you only have yourself and water
and the echoes of the walls

The cubic space in an old pickup cab
is about the same as a shower stall

Sometimes we sang
with the windows open
and gravel heavy on the bass
Sometimes it was raining
as we synced along
singing every Johnny Horton song

in the best studio in the world
in the best of all worlds

Back to Calgary

Audio Recordings, Cowboy Poetry, Poems about Poetry, Ranch Life / December 5, 2024 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Went back to Calgary
the home of the Stampede

Shook out my old lasso
and caught nine poems with a Houlihan throw

Would have liked to catch some more
but them doggies sometimes hide in dreams
and won't come out by keeping score

A I Won’t Hug You

Audio Recordings, Haiku, Poems about Poetry / tagged Artificial Intelligence, Connection, Technology / December 4, 2024 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

No longer trusing
in poetry on the net
live readings again

What a Picture is Worth II

Audio Recordings, Haiku, Poems about Poetry / December 3, 2024 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

A picture
may be worth a thousand words

And a haiku
by Basho worth ten thousand pictures

What a Picture is Worth

Audio Recordings / tagged Communication, Intimacy / December 2, 2024 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

A picture
is worth a thousand words
but less than half a whisper

Image by Bianca Van Dijk from Pixabay

An Ode to Odes

Audio Recordings, Poems about Poetry / December 1, 2024 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Odes being songs of praise
should they not merit praise as well
giving and receiving being equal
if equal apertures be open

Who more jolly than Santa
soot covered though he be
and who more Mary looing
than a mother with baby at breast

Examples being circles all
this ode shall have no endings

1 Reply

After the Death

Audio Recordings / tagged Anguish, Death, Grief, Loss / November 30, 2024 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

(for Orli and Gideon)

These are the days of the rats in the cages

The burrowing into sawdust corners
and gnawing on bars
and the running on wheels
mostly the running on wheels

Even at night, specially at night
white God in his lab coat naps in the corner

and you know with perfect logic and insanity

If you could just do it fast enough
if you could just do it right enough

Like the wheels of old watches
all the cogs would fit the way they used to
when the good ones all had jewels
sleeping safe in their dark cases

And each morning you had to wind them up
if you wanted hours in your day

And you know, wish, know, wish, know,
that this is another way that this must go

And if you could just get the woulda, coulda, shoulda, could, woulds, shoulda, woulda, coulda, shoulda , wheels to mesh their gears just right

You could turn it all back

The 20th year of celebrating the short but impactful life of Tildan with a memorial swim in her honor

This Times a Thousand

Audio Recordings, Relationships / tagged Communication, Frustration, Misunderstanding, Sadness / November 29, 2024 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

What I wanted to say
was that words can't say
what I was wanting to say

There are languages
that I do not know
that say it in pictures

Maybe if I learned a few
I could finally say to you

Or fail a thousand times as sadly

Stranger Connections

Audio Recordings, Family, Personal Growth, Relationships / tagged Compassion, Love, Wisdom / November 28, 2024 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

The small round Rinpoche at Esalen
was teaching Tibetan compassion

Start from where you are he said
feel the love you feel for one or two
or the people nearest dearest to you

Holding that feeling indiluted
add one more and then one more
til you start to feel the feeling fade
then pull back in til you feel it again

Sit with this today all day
and tomorrow try to add another
and if that works then add another
til every man becomes your brother

Buddha with a Tuque

Audio Recordings, Nature / tagged Calm, Serenity, Silence, Snow, Winter / November 27, 2024 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Serenity descends

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Anonymous on CirclesJanuary 18, 2026
Both Gloria and I were touched by your poem. Congrats. Tom and Gloria
LeoraLawrence Porter on Sacred DanceJanuary 18, 2026
Thank you, from an unknowing dancing healer! as for my liking… While I greatly, greatly appreciate your clarity of voice…
barbara joy on MessagesJanuary 16, 2026
profound
Eda Lishman on For the PoetryJanuary 7, 2026
Neil: what a daily gentlre reminder ...this broight me many memories of walking out into the open prairie searching for…
NEIL MEILI on Grocery Shopping in AustinDecember 13, 2025
Thanks Pamela, Love to see some of your haiku and you and Pamela in the new year. All blessings, Neil…

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