Neil Meili

Zen Cowboy Poet & Freelance Philosopher

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Spring is Fleet of Foot

Audio Recordings, Haiku, Nature, Travel / tagged Seasons / June 12, 2024 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Spring is fleet of foot
those who pursue it northward
outrun summer's gifts

Y’Alzheimers

Audio Recordings / tagged Aging, Alzheimers/Dementia, Humor / June 11, 2024 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Getting old
and forgetting
that the South
lost the war

Turtle Boots

Audio Recordings, Cowboy Poetry / tagged Humor / June 10, 2024 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

I bought a pair of boots one time
made from an old sea turtle’s hide
The prettiest boots you ever saw
but a little bit tight along the side

I figured it would only take a while
to break these babies in just right
and in the meantime at least I’d have
the pleasure of taking them off at night

Now a hundred years don’t seem long
to an old sea turtle, or his next of kin
but it appeared it was gonna take that long
to break those miserable damn boots in

I tried everything to ease that constant pain
I soaked ‘em, I oiled ‘em, I bent ‘em, I boiled ‘em
If anyone had suggestions, no matter how wild
I got out those boots and sure enough tried ‘em

But those son of a guns just continued to pinch
I couldn’t get them to move 1/16th of an inch
wild thoughts of destruction started filling my day
but the boots were too pretty I’d just give them away

I gave them to my younger brother first
by logic his feet should be smaller you see
but after a month or so he gave them back and said he just couldn’t accept all that charity

So I gave them away to friend after friend
but I guess gratitude ain’t what it used to be
the results were always the same in the end
I got those turtle boots back, but I mostly lost
the friend

and every time I got them back
I’d put them on and wear them a while
and never could figure how one pair of boots
could cause so much pain
and still have so much style

But I gave them at last to a chiropractor
down in Texas
and I didn’t get ‘em back
so I expect he’s got ‘em beat

because if he can’t adjust those boots
he can always adjust his feet

Energy on the Ranch

Audio Recordings, Cattle, Cows, Farm, Ranch Life / June 9, 2024 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

When Red Bull
was a Hereford not a drink

They could
still get you moving fast
when they pawed the ground

Painting the Prairie

Audio Recordings, Farm, Ranch Life / tagged Art / June 8, 2024 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

No abstract art
in the Old Farmers Home

Survival needs order
Home Sweet Home
painfully into a sampler stitched

Only the storms
got to color outside of the lines
someone had to rope the house to the barn

Time-Lapse Prairie

Farm, Ranch Life / tagged Perspective / June 7, 2024 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Clouds
chase shadows
across the hide of hills

Blues
of light and dark
mix in palate ponds

Two antelope
enger from the left and gone

Dusk

Audio Recordings, Farm, Ranch Life / tagged Humor, UFOs / June 6, 2024 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

One light comes on in the sky
one lamp on the prairie - James Wright

Lined up at the north end of the south field
hard machines made for tearing the earth
relax into softness

The newlyweds in the hired man's house
are getting a little shy again

While
just over the horizon which is becoming not one
teenagers from Mars in their little round cars
ponder a perfect night to spin a crop circle or two

Crop Insurance

Audio Recordings, Farm, Ranch Life / tagged Hope, Humor / June 5, 2024 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Young farmer at the country dance
feeling there was nothing left to live for
with his whole crop flat-threshed by hail

Until the prettiest girl in the hall
took him outside to show it wasn't necessarily so

Next morning's pews were filled to full
with farmers praying for their crops to fail

Hawaii Five Oh Oh

Audio Recordings, Cowboy Poetry / tagged Hawaii, Horses, Humiliation, Pride, Shame / June 4, 2024 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

So beautiful
It could be an ad for anything

A young man and a beautiful young woman
gallop along a deserted white-sand Oahu beach

They wouldn’t include in the thirty second ad
how hard the cowboy from Canada is trying to impress the island maid

How many acres - how many broncs broken

She had given him her 16 hand Hunter to ride
and they’d left the silly English saddles behind

How good he feels about himself as the sand kicks up from hooves
how pride goeth before a rogue wave crashing at their feet
and the horse spooking
and the cowboy’s doing everything right for a quarter horse
and wrong for this one who goes left while he goes right

Nothing but gravity between him and his butt on the hard wet sand
The visible bruise lasts a week or two
Lifetime of therapists working on the shame

Dragons

Audio Recordings, Personal Growth, Travel / June 3, 2024 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Beyond the maps of the ancient world
There be dragons
Beyond the ways of parents and peers
There be dragons
Beyond the days of preachers and of teachers
There be dragons
Beyond where you know or have dared to go
There be dragons
A toe tip, a step, and a stride
Heart, arm and sword
steeled by the fiery breath
How sweet the dragon's meat
and the maiden's
Another mark on another map
Here be dead dragons

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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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