Audio Recordings – Page 94 – Neil Meili

Neil Meili

Zen Cowboy Poet & Freelance Philosopher

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Category: Audio Recordings

For C.A. Wiles

Audio Recordings, Poems about Poetry, Relationships / tagged Connections, Death, Shakespeare / May 9, 2023 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

As I was saying to C.A. the other day

Well actually I wasn’t
but wished I would have been
If I had known he was dying any day

I would have said
You are my twice removed
and now about to be removed
connection to Buffalo Bill
where your father worked
the Wild West Show

I made note of it
in a poem
you might recall

And I would have said
I want you to know I am as proud
to have shaken your hand as his

And I would have said
You are a prince among men
and among princes

For, though Shakespeare
may not have foretold it
there may be as many
in Texas as in Denmark

I would have said all that
or met and not said it at all

And yet C.A.
if you and I should meet
some ghost-lit night

as you step down
from your ghost rider rounds
to ponder your own
sweet moon-blanched skull
as a princely poet just might do

I would say I’m sure along with you
and every poet here

Alas poor Yorick
we did not know you well
we did not know you well enough

Image of Buffalo Bill Coin by WilliPuschel

Transmittal

Audio Recordings, Relationships / tagged Connections, Queen Elizabeth, Queen Mum, Royal Family, United Nations, Winston Churchill / May 8, 2023 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

They talk about degrees of separation

With apologies to Kevin Bacon
I like to think in degrees of connection

When I helped Madeleine Albright
down from that one tricky step
it was also everyone at the UN
and anyone who was anyone
in politics and power for thirty years

President Ford was a nice man
with a football player’s hand
that had shaken more than a few

When the Queen Mother in her 90s
was our guest in the Saskatchewan Hotel
I held her hand in both of mine a little
longer than called for in the book of protocol
wanting to make sure that Churchill got through

Degrees of Separation

Audio Recordings, Relationships / tagged Connections, Fame, Royalty / May 7, 2023 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

C.A. tells me the other day
about his genuine cowboy father
who worked Wild Bill’s “Wild West” show

And if I shake C.A.’s hand and I often do
I’m only one away from Buffalo Bill
and Sitting Bull makes two

And then there’s Black Elk and Crazy Horse
and a whole passel of Little Big Horn Sioux

And shaking the hand of the Queen Mom
and loving her lots and holding on some
I was only one away from Churchill
and every crowned head for a hundred years
and Lady Di too, don’t that bring some tears

And I also hug Greta now and then
who worked for Hammarsjold at the U.N.

Yesterday I had a rum with Eric
who lived with the Yanamami
and natives of a Southern sea

All those amazing thousands
and I still haven’t counted past three
anyone here want to shake hands with me

Long Wait the King

Audio Recordings, Personal Growth / tagged Coronation, King Charles, Queen Elizabeth, Royalty / May 6, 2023 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Charles has been so long in the wings
that his feathers have lost some shine

All his best polo ponies have died
and corners knocked off of his pride

His mother unprepared yet prevailed
this much practice should have it nailed

Prince Charles, age 4, beside his grandmother at his mother’s coronation
Westminster Abbey, June 2, 1953

1 Reply

What Charles Can’t Say Anymore

Audio Recordings, News / tagged Coronation, King Charles, Leadership, Queen Elizabeth, Royal Family / May 5, 2023 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

The planet it warming
the rain forest is burning
much modern architecture sucks

When you get to be the king
you no longer get to do your thing
at least not the way you used to do it

Unlike his mom he can't just wear
a suit of yellow and flower of blue
to show Ukraine that his heart is there

They say his mother never set a foot wrong

This may be a little too much to expect
perhaps he will have to get by remembering
the worlds of his mentor Laurens van Der Post

"If I look after the footsteps, and lengthen my stride, the miles will take care of themselves"

1 Reply

Through the Needle’s Eye

Audio Recordings / tagged Capitalism, Child Exploitation, Injustice / May 4, 2023 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

The golf links are so near the mill
that almost every day
the labouring children can look out
and see the men at play
- Sarah N. Cleghorn 1916

Sarah, you'll be pleased to know
there are no such scenes today
The children labouring in the mills
are half a world away

The Illusions of Opticians

Audio Recordings / tagged Doctor, Eyes, Occupational Hazard / May 3, 2023 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Having looked
so long and deep through
so many windows to so many souls

What water wings neath white coats
do they need to keep from drowning

How The Ear and The Eye

Audio Recordings, Nature, Relationships / tagged Communication / May 2, 2023 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

How the ear and the eye
both sender and receiver be

How like the sun
you warm all that you softly see

And do not think
dear hammer anvil ear
that little drum plays but for thee

Correction Lines

Audio Recordings, Personal Growth, Ranch Life, Travel / May 1, 2023 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

The sides of Saskatchewan are British straight
though closer together at the top than the bottom
With the world being round and the fields being square
something has to give, and the solution is correction lines

Which is why going north on a gravel road at eighty
you come to two ninety degree turns in short succession

Sober, or careful, or both, you might slow enough to make them

If not, since this is Saskatchewan, you will most likely end up
in a fresh plowed field or to your windshield in wheat
not Thelma and Louising over a cliff or head-on into a wall of rock

And since a poem must have a metaphor
let us count the times of grace
when non-fatal course correction
was allowed and a new road traveled with gratitude

Cowboys Will Be Boys

Audio Recordings, Cattle, Cowboy Poetry, Cows, Farm, Ranch Life, Relationships / April 30, 2023 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

How funny is it
to be kicked by a cow
(at least compared to a horse)

Depends a lot
if it happens to you
or to your tightest friend

(By tight I mean
both close and liquored up)

Just one of those jokes
that girls don’t seem to get
not even in the calving pen

At least I’ve never seen
them doing their damndest
to get the one with broken ribs
to laugh so they can see them cry

1 Reply

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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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