Audio Recordings – Page 205 – Neil Meili

Neil Meili

Zen Cowboy Poet & Freelance Philosopher

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Category: Audio Recordings

Black Hills of Dakota

Audio Recordings, Environment / tagged Betrayal, First Nations / June 8, 2019 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

The red man mines his life for irony
while the white man tears the earth for iron

But treaties protect the sacred stones
as long as rivers flow and grass grow
Paper covers rock
in the Black Hills of Dakota

Gold in the Black Hills, end of treaty
Scissors cut paper
in the Black Hills of Dakota

But sacred stones outlive them all
Rock breaks scissors
in the Black Hills of Dakota

The Jester

Audio Recordings, Poems about Poetry / tagged Politics / June 5, 2019 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

For Them the World Poet

Only the jester dares
to tell the truth to the king
to hold the blade as a mirror
and thrust to the heart of the thing

And yet he has learned to retreat
as fast as a smile might fade
sit with his back to the stone
and polish the blade

2 Replies

Reed Between the Lions

Audio Recordings, Relationships / May 27, 2019 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

My mother’s will was always
stronger than my won’t

My father’s won’t was always
stronger than my will

Caretaker soft or Cowboy strong

How quick I learned to change my face
to face the faces that I faced

I can still spin that mirror now so you
can see the face you want to see

But neither you nor I will know
which one is me

2 Replies

Climbout Sunsets

Audio Recordings, Flight / May 26, 2019 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

John Gillespie Magee
slipped the surly bonds of earth
reached out and touched the face of God

Planes are bigger and faster now
I in my Aero Commander
commander of the air

Climbing at dusk have set the sun
on the lip of the world
and held it there

Have rode the Concorde
faster than the speed of sound
and faster than the earth goes round
that can lift it up where it went down

And there are times I’d best the lark
to try to hold or yet turn back
baby’s smiles and love’s first spark

I think Magee, the reverence would see
as we all fight the dying of the light
and try to touch the Sistine finger
a little longer before night

1 Reply

Rekindled

Audio Recordings, Relationships / May 25, 2019 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Babies
bright smiles
that warmed and seared your heart

Long banked
in photo album embers

One
grandchild’s grin
and you’re ablaze again

1 Reply

Don’t Worry Mate

Audio Recordings, Cattle, Cowboy Poetry, Cows, Ranch Life, Travel / May 20, 2019 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

1 Reply

The Armadillo

Audio Recordings / tagged Defence, Fear, Psychology / May 15, 2019 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

The armadillo lies
in the center of the road
with his feet in the air

The shell on his back
for centuries over used
caused the spine in his neck
to become somewhat fused

So that when he hears
that danger is near
he has to leap and turn
to cover his rear

And if that sound is the front of a car
he leaps into a sudden marriage
of armadillo and undercarriage

So he lays on his back and he waves his feet
a warning to travellers from far and near
about the many dangers of old fear

and old ways of dealing with it

Pulling Pipe

Audio Recordings, Cattle, Cows, Family, Farm, Poems about Poetry, Ranch Life, Relationships / May 14, 2019 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Trouble down the well

and me, my dad, and my brothers
are Texas roughnecks

pulling spinning and stacking pipe
pipe and rod and “Careful dammit!
If you drop that rod the well is shot”

We’re Red Adair, fighting a fire
we’re wet and muddy and cold and mad
and we’ve got to get it done by dark

The gold down there’s not black but red
an iron rich sea hiding away
from the pulling power of the prairie sun

Looking back fifty years from a poet’s perch

I pull, spin and stack
metaphor and meaning

Back then it was just men
doing what they had to do

and white-faced cattle waiting

Train Day

Audio Recordings, Nostalgia, Ranch Life / tagged Courval, Ghost Town, Prairie Life, Saskatchewan, Train Day, Trains / May 11, 2019 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Once a week, once a week
they came from all around, all around
and swelled, and swelled
the size of our young town

And the chugging grew, and the chugging grew
and the chugging grew, and the whistle blew
and all was new, and the children knew

But now the lines are down, all down
old folks and old dogs in the town
not a child nor a pup, nor a pup
and not one elevator up

1 Reply

Sonnet for the Ordinary

Audio Recordings, Poems about Poetry / tagged Care / May 7, 2019 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

There is a loving way to make a bed
With pillows care set at the head
And a mother’s loving knead to give
Adds nourishment to help us live

We know that water crystals change
With words of love or hate about
From snowflake to a muddy mange
And we are water without doubt

A cheerful flipper at the greasy spoon
Feeds us better though the food be junk
Than Pierre at the Ritz with silver spoon
Serving Crèpes Suzette with Galic funk

And care enough within a poem
can provide another home

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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…

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