Poems about Poetry – Neil Meili

Neil Meili

Zen Cowboy Poet & Freelance Philosopher

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Category: Poems about Poetry

Three Draft Horses

Audio Recordings, Family, Farm, Poems about Poetry, Ranch Life / tagged Horses / September 8, 2026 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

On the ranch, ride before you walk
with big sister's brave behind my scared

Grandfather's big Clyde, top as wide as a table

The jackhammer hoofed plug at Al's in Idaho
while Dorsey gets to ride the silk-paced Arab
Chivalry is not dead, but it has a sore ass

May they all chomp
the hay of heaven while I flesh them out again

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Pincher Creek Alberta

Audio Recordings, Cattle, Cowboy Poetry, Cows, Farm, Nature, Poems about Poetry, Ranch Life, Remembering / tagged Community, Gathering, Sharing / September 4, 2026 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Mid June and Cowboy Poets back in town
voices hoarse from long winter's silence

And a thousand and more are here to hear
for the poets have been listening all year

Listening to the cattle and the coyotes
and the Northern Lights at nights

And they have been reminded
and being reminded they remember
and remembering they come here to remind

And just listening we remember
and unwind

Looking forward to the Trails End Gathering in High River this year

Cloud Plowed Fields

Audio Recordings, Farm, Poems about Poetry, Ranch Life / tagged Rejection / August 20, 2026 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

I hear that line at an Austin open mic
and I want it – actually I want it back
this is my line, how did he find it first

In any case – I hear the line, and Bam!
I am back in a cloud-scudding sun-baking
Saskatchewan summer fallow summer

Black lands between the glowing gold
John Deere with its hard iron hooves
ripping up the roots and seeds
of the flowers no-one wanted
call them weeds

Sometimes cutting worms in half
(I hear that they grow back)

While the little poet sits
by the caragana hedge choking on the flowers
no-on wanted

Coyote Eyes

Audio Recordings, Poems about Poetry / tagged Connection, Dogs, Music / August 12, 2026 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

It is Austin
so a poet is running for mayor

We stop by a backyard party
in our neighbourhood to meet
greet and hopefully support her

It is Austin
so there is an eight piece band
The Bob Katz and they're very good

A dog with coyote eyes
comes up and wants to be my friend
so I make up
a Coyote Eyes, Coyote Eyes song
and sing it to her while the band
lights up Johnny Cash's Ring of Fire

and she looks up at me with thosse coyote eyes
and we are very much in love
but I am late for a poetry reading
at the English Café and have to leave
so she goes and sits by another man
She is looking up at him with those coyote eyes
I think she is trying to tell him
about the song

It Is Enough

Audio Recordings, Family, Nature, Poems about Poetry / tagged Aging, Gratitude, Struggle / August 11, 2026 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

It is enough
that the baby smiles
even if it's only gas

It is enough
to know that God exists
though it take a lifetime
and a minute more

It is enough
that the dog loves you
at the end of a day filled
with cats

It is enough
that the rainbow
can arch your back
straight again

It is enough
to watch a sunset

It is enough
that leaves fall like butterflies

It is enough
that joy exists, even when
others have it all

It is enoughgh
that the other knee feels
fine

It is enough
that in dreams you can
still fly

It is enough
that poetry is in the bible
too

It is enough
that gifts come
in the size of gratitude

Heat Wave Haiku

Audio Recordings, Environment, Haiku, Nature, Poems about Poetry / tagged Summer / July 28, 2026 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

In weather not fit
for man or doggerel
put down pen lift drink

Why Not the Beautiful Words

Audio Recordings, Poems about Poetry / tagged Choice, Language / July 27, 2026 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Why don't we use just the beautiful words
Why not cast out a net and bring
back only those that sing

Why would we use the English for butterfly
doesn't that sound like a dairy related event

Why use the German Schmetterling
doesn't that have a schledgehammer ring

Wouldn't Italina farfalla, Spanish mariposa or the Porguguese borboleta be betta

Why not the très French papillon
does it not taste n the tongue to you
like air and nectar and dew

Why don't we save bats for hitting balls
and for insulation for our house
would it not be more fitting
to flit with the fledermaus

Are there not a thousand languages or more
do they not all hold jewels in their core

Why not let the children choose

Are their hearts not our purest tuning forks
are they not ourselves more clear
do they not still resonate with all
they speak and feel and hear

Tuning Forks

Audio Recordings, Poems about Poetry / tagged Creativity, Inspiration / July 26, 2026 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

When life and writing have
fallen into earth-filled holes

When bootstraps pulling up
need someone else to pull them

Stafford or Rumi or Noal wait
a reading away from music again

Humming with Neruda or Oliver or Hafiz
mud falls from booths and stars come out

Poet All Stars

Audio Recordings, Poems about Poetry / tagged Comparison, Competition, Excellence, Literature, Perseverence, Sports / July 18, 2026 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

The odds are overwhelming

Every time we play the game
we find ourselves on a level field
with the all time all world all star team

Homer, Whitman, Rumi and Omar Khayyam
Wordsworth, Shakespeare (or whoever wrote his stuff)

It's like always batting against Nolan Ryan on his best day
Like trying to strike out Mickey Mantle, Ted Williams
Babe Ruth (without a hangover) and Reggie Jackson in October

Great poets never tire or retire, they just die
and still play wiht their best stuff

Soccer players today don't have to play Pelé every day
But with translations and free agents
we write up against Neruda, Viello and Paz

Or heads up against Leo Tolstoy and Anna Ackmanova
with an East German judge

But we play

The Little Dutch Boy Writes Poetry

Audio Recordings, Poems about Poetry, String Too Short To Save / July 17, 2026 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Only a drop of two
and only from time to time
but you can feel the weight
of the whole North Sea behind it

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Sandi Hebley on Back to SaskatchewanSeptember 17, 2026
💕💕
Sandi Hebley on Breakfast at the Chateau Lake LouiseSeptember 14, 2026
Beautiful!
Sandi Hebley on Three Draft HorsesSeptember 8, 2026
🤣🤣
Sandi Hebley on The BerriesSeptember 5, 2026
Awwwww! 😢 For me it was blackberries!
Sandi Hebley on Cowboy PoetrySeptember 3, 2026
Love this one!

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