Neil Meili

Zen Cowboy Poet & Freelance Philosopher

Skip to content
  • Home
  • Contact
  • Neil’s Books
  • Poems
  • Kind Words
  • A Neil a Day Poems
Neil Meili

Suns Set

Audio Recordings / tagged End of an Era / July 4, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com
The USA has been a marvelous mostly day May its sunset resemble in some way the one off Mendocino today
Leave a reply

Greece 2001

Audio Recordings, Travel / tagged Classic Literature, Sea sickness / July 3, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com
We take the boat back to Athens cold and windy and a little rough Dorsey lies down all the way If she is Helen returned she might again cause the launching of a thousand ships but she would not sail on one I have an ouzo and man the bow swells rising through my feet feeling the eternity of the sea When the islands are out of sight I still feel and could steer by the shape of the waves
Leave a reply

Looking Down on Cruise Ships

Audio Recordings, Travel / tagged Classic Literature, Crowds, Mediterranean, Odyssey, Spain / July 2, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com
Wide-windowed morning view from the seventeenth floor of the W moored on a peninsula off Barcelona Below and to the right cruise ships five each disgorging fifty times the number that peopled the prairie town of my youth (and that sometimes seemed too many) Ahead and to the east as far as eye can see stretches Homer's wine-dark sea where still sails the Argo and on deck - me
Leave a reply

Inner Critic on Holiday

Audio Recordings, Travel / tagged Discovery, Joy / July 1, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com
You will get lost in Paris it is not your fault, it was planned that way You may find it unforgivably gauche not to know the left bank from the right Let it go It is not necessary to criticize oneself here they have waiters for that purpose And looking out, not in you may stumble Americanly upon Marie's little side street shop with bread as new as the cheese is old and a three dollar wine to bridge them or catch a brief glimpse of that seriously happy young man pedaling down the very center of the Champs d'Elyse one foot and a base fiddle resting on his skateboard
Leave a reply

Inner Critic at the Beach

Audio Recordings / tagged Body Image, Comparing, Shame / June 30, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com
Sand, sand, sand and perfect bodies tanned And the same sand-paper line not mine, not mine, not mine
Leave a reply

The Inner Critic

Audio Recordings, Family, Personal Growth / tagged Compassion, Doubt, Fear, Patterns, Shame / June 29, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com
Poor little Keystone Cop (although often not so funny) leaping from shoulder to shoulder trying so hard to keep us safe Yelling or whispering in each ear the old rules based on fear Telling us what we should have done and what we should never do enforcing rules learned long ago that may no longer be true The voice of your mother still nags when your room's not neat The voice of your father still wants you up at dawn Your teacher and your coach Your country and your culture Your parents and your younger selves with messages to keep you safe The cop only knows what he used to know and still does what he was told to do You don't have to destroy him or shove him out the door Just put your arm around him and tell him you're no longer four
Leave a reply

Peaking of Poetry

Audio Recordings, Personal Growth, Poems about Poetry / tagged Aging, Art & Artists, Creativity / June 28, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com
They speak of writers past their prime and nothing over forty worth your time My trick has been to start beyond that age with my doggerel but a starving pup Free to write to a hundred with room left to improve
Leave a reply

Circling Back

Audio Recordings, Poems about Poetry, Remembering / June 27, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com
All those long days of youth before I was a poet lived but not noted I go back now guided by bend grass and broken branches Attaching toe tags of meaning to departed days and friends
Leave a reply

Don’t Worry Mate

Audio Recordings, Cattle, Cowboy Poetry, Cows, Farm, Ranch Life, Travel / tagged Humor / June 26, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com
Up North working the neighbor's calves One of thse mixed farm forty cow no corral, haywire operations good fols though, and they help us out We're branding and cutting and vaccinating in a lean-to off the barn in shit six inches deep No room for a horse or a rope so you just brab those calves and throw them down right-side up os they're dry enough to brand The farmer's son loses his grip on a catch and the calf tries to bold past me I turn quick, gram the head and come 'round fast to where the farmer stands flat footed with that big syringe in his hand Into my shoulder, skin, flesh and bone dumpint the whole shot of multi-task vaccine The next day the arm hurts bad and doesn't look too good either So we drive down to Mossbank to see the Aussie flying doctor who must have gotten off course to land in Saskatchewan He gives me some medicine and says "Come back in three days" I say "I'll probably be fine by then and it's sixty miles round trip" He says "Don't worry mate – you're vaccinated for shipping fever And I've been travelling ever since
Leave a reply

Leaving Town

Audio Recordings, Relationships, Travel / tagged Despair, Home, Separation / June 25, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com
With the last house at your back and the last dog in the last yard tired of barking Still standing and still staring at a line posing as horizon The warmth and wounds of love drying in the wind Knowing that the world is indeed flat that you are only one step from the edge and that you will fall off
Leave a reply

Post navigation

← Older posts
Newer posts →

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.

  1. Sandi Hebley on How Fallen AngelsAugust 17, 2025

    Indeed!

  2. Nancy Fierstien on Unremember ThatAugust 16, 2025

    Gonna be inclined to share this one at my Poets' Tea reading tomorrow afternoon. Thanks, Neil!

  3. Sandi Hebley on Memory Lane JoggingAugust 5, 2025

    Lovely!

  4. Sandi Hebley on Dad and Death at WarAugust 4, 2025

    😢

  5. Sandi Hebley on One for the AuntiesAugust 3, 2025

    Wow!

  • 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 Love Mother Music Nature Perspective Poetry Politics Prairie Psychology Ranch Life Regret Religion sensuality Solitude Spring Trump War Winter Wisdom
  • October 2025
  • September 2025
  • August 2025
  • July 2025
  • June 2025
  • May 2025
  • April 2025
  • March 2025
  • February 2025
  • January 2025
  • December 2024
  • November 2024
  • October 2024
  • September 2024
  • August 2024
  • July 2024
  • June 2024
  • May 2024
  • April 2024
  • March 2024
  • February 2024
  • January 2024
  • December 2023
  • November 2023
  • October 2023
  • September 2023
  • August 2023
  • July 2023
  • June 2023
  • May 2023
  • April 2023
  • March 2023
  • February 2023
  • January 2023
  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • April 2018
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • February 2016
  • November 2014
  • December 2013
  • December 2012
  • May 2012
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • October 2010
  • March 2009
  • October 2008
  • August 2008
  • March 2007
  • February 2007
  • October 2006
  • October 2005
  • October 2004
  • March 2004
  • October 2003
  • March 2003
  • March 2002
  • December 2001
  • March 2001
  • December 2000
  • October 2000
  • March 2000
  • April 1999
  • March 1999
  • March 1997
  • March 1996
  • March 1995
  • March 1994
  • May 1986
©2015 Neil Meili. All Right Reserved.

Theme Designed By ThemeVan | Powered by WordPress

 

Loading Comments...