Audio Recordings – Page 106 – Neil Meili

Neil Meili

Zen Cowboy Poet & Freelance Philosopher

Skip to content

Home
Contact
Neil’s Books
Poems
Kind Words
A Neil a Day Poems

Category: Audio Recordings

Grandmother Georgina

Audio Recordings, Family, Relationships / tagged Art & Artists, First Nations, Native, Reconcilliation, Tradition, Wisdom / September 28, 2023 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Outdigenous

Audio Recordings / tagged Aboriginal, Colonialism, Extinction, First Nations, Indian, Language, Loss, Native / September 27, 2023 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

A dog is not a dog
in languages where it is
a wolf and no man's friend

Every language has, or had
words that do not translate to others

Seven hundred languages in Australia
before English discovered them to death

How many in the Americas, many to few
their words for mourning not here for this poem

Aboriginal pictograph, Kakadu National Park, Arnhem Land, Australia

A Farewell to Eric

Audio Recordings, Poems about Poetry, Relationships, Travel / tagged Aboriginal, Death, Elders, First Nations, Grief, Magic, Mysticism, Native, Shaman, South America / September 26, 2023 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

In nineteen seventy five
In the rainforests of Venezuela
Eric lived for a year with the Yanomami

He also lived with the Hunkpapa
the little people that only the shamans see
unless you toke what the shamans toke
then you can see them too

When Eric was ready to go home
the Yanomami gathered by the river
and wailed and mourned as if he'd died

Eric says his goodbyes and tries to start his boat
Tuned up, new plugs and all, but it just won't start

He pulls and pulls while the tribesmen wail

After what seems like a very long time
the shame comes down to the boat
and asks Eric if he's sure he must leave

Eric insists again that the time has come

The shaman admits that he has placed Hunkpapas in the motor to keep him there

He pulls them out one by one
juggling them hot in his hands
and throws them steaming into the river
One pull and the engine starts

In two thousand and twelve in Austin
Eric is ready to go home again
Many wail and wish that he would stay
by he knows that it is time to leave

At times like this it helps
to have a shaman for a friend

John Hawk flies in and reads
Eric's poems to the Hunkpapas
and watches as the little people leave
It takes a few pulls, but the motor starts

Supper with the Phd

Audio Recordings, Relationships / tagged Alcohol, Alcoholism, Coping, Death, Genius, Suicide / September 25, 2023 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

I sit across from my friend
and watch as he drowns
his well developed brain

Every day after work
he puts another million
brain cell kittens in a sack
and takes them to the lake

It is not for me to judge

This small death each day
may well have kept him from
the larger choice his father made

And a diminished capacity may help
when listening to the daily news
or hanging out with poets

Holding Up The Line

Audio Recordings, Family, Farm, Nostalgia, Ranch Life, Remembering / tagged Coffee, Harvest / September 23, 2023 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Barista, barista, if only you knew
what I'd like to order from you

Barista, barista
please, if you please
cold coffee in a Mason jar
like Momma sent to the fields
at harvest and at haying time

That much sugar
and that much cream
and no one wiped the lip
when they passed it round

Barista, barista
there's nothing I see
on that long fancy menu for me

I guess
I just came in to smell the coffee

Putting Up Preserves

Audio Recordings, Family, Farm, Nostalgia, Ranch Life / tagged Canning, Garden, Harvest, Preserving, Survival, Vegetables / September 22, 2023 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

On the prairies thegarden is one word

While Dad and us boys are filling the bins
Mom and the girls are mustarding beans and pickling beets
filling Mason jars with a winter of good eats
then sealing them tight with red rubber rings

We are singing, it remembers like a song
A Canning time - Canning time - sing along

The Girl From Away

Audio Recordings, Farm, Nostalgia, Ranch Life, Remembering / tagged Love, Teenager / September 21, 2023 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

I was sixteen, it was summer

Hauling wheat to town in the 3-ton Chevy
A quart of store-bought buttermilk
on the seat for the trip back to the ranch

There was a girl, my age and beautiful
visiting in the last house on the left

Sometimes she would be
on the street or in the yard

The truck was new and powerful
I was farm boy healthy, strong

We were hitting on all cylinders

It was warm, the window was open
I was in love, the buttermilk was cold

Texas in the Title

Audio Recordings / tagged Music, Texas / September 20, 2023 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

If you want your song to be a hit
just put Texas in the title

Whether it's in your rear view mirror
or where all George Strait’s exes live

Austin Lounge Lizards trashing Dallas
or waltzing across it like Ernest Tubb

And the stars at night are big and bright
CLAP/CLAP/CLAP/CLAP/ /CLAP/CLAP/CLAP
Deep in the heart of Texas

Three thousand titles and more
with the songs and movies and books

So you know just what to do
to have the eyes of Texas on you too

And what was them is gonna be us
so pull over Willie we’re gettin on the bus

2 Replies

Time in Texas

Audio Recordings, Travel / September 19, 2023 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

You race it in Dallas
drown it in Houston
and dance with it in Austin

Any farther south
and you have to wrap it
around a siesta
A burrito with salsa
at both ends

Poetry Texas

Audio Recordings, Poems about Poetry, Travel / September 18, 2023 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

There's a town in Texas called Poetry

Look for the water tower
about twenty miles S.E. of Dallas

Make up, if you like, what's in the water

Post navigation

← Older posts

Newer posts →

Search

Neil’s Latest Book Available in Paperback and Large Print Edition though Amazon worldwide

Social

View zencowboypoet’s profile on Facebook
View @meilineil’s profile on Twitter
View neilmeili’s profile on Instagram

Want More Poetry? Sign Up Here.

Anonymous on Rule BritannicaNovember 6, 2026
Amen to that.
Sandi Hebley on Ready for WinterOctober 26, 2026
😁😁
NEIL MEILI on Laughing With the DeadOctober 25, 2026
Thanks for the story Sandi, And bet he is and that I would have liked him Neil
Sandi Hebley on Okay Now – MostlyOctober 22, 2026
🤗
Sandi Hebley on Laughing With the DeadOctober 21, 2026
One of my fondest memories is that the last full sentence my dad spoke was to tell a visitor a…

Audio Recordings
Cattle
Cowboy Poetry
Cows
Environment
Family
Farm
Flight
Haiku
Limerick
Manure
Nature
News
Nostalgia
Personal Growth
Pilots
Poems about Poetry
Ranch Life
Relationships
Remembering
String Too Short To Save
Travel
Uncategorized

Tags

Aboriginal Aging Alcohol Art Art & Artists Autumn Beauty Birds Childhood Communication Connection Covid19 Death Dogs Dreams Faith Family Fear First Nations Friendship Gratitude Grief Healing Hope Horses Humor Loss Love Mother Music Nature Perspective Poetry Prairie Psychology Ranch Life Regret Religion Seasons sensuality Spring Trees War Winter Wisdom

©2015 Neil Meili. All Right Reserved.

Theme Designed By ThemeVan | Powered by WordPress

Loading Comments...

Write a Comment...

Email

Name

Website