Neil Meili

Zen Cowboy Poet & Freelance Philosopher

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Neil Meili

A Word in the Woods

Audio Recordings, Nature, Relationships / tagged Affection, Energy, Trust / January 15, 2026 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com
When you
in need or wild abandon
throw your arms around a tree
it is the tree that hugs you back

But don't
be so sanguine with a porcupine

There are people in this world 
who live in joy and trust in God
and being with them so do you

And some so filled with static of fear
that your hair stands up when near
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Core Strength

Audio Recordings, Haiku, Nature / tagged Healing, Rejuvenation, Seasons, Trees / January 14, 2026 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com
Unshaded by leaves
all winter long the old oak
drinks deep of the sun
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View to the East

Audio Recordings, Haiku / tagged Beauty, Contentment, Trees, Winter / January 13, 2026 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com
Reading haiku
in the limb-veined dawn
I do not long for spring
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In Dying the Dying

Audio Recordings, Relationships / tagged Death, Journey, Loss / January 12, 2026 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com
In dying the dying
must look to the dead

and hope the the years
of forgetting their name
will not be met by the same

In dying the dying must look to the dead

The living can only
wave clinging from shore
what you'll need is the dead
with the map and the oar

So call to them now
send food if you can
they forgave you before
pray they'll do it again
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Grave Robber

Audio Recordings, Relationships / tagged Loss, Love / January 11, 2026 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com
If I believe in a place better
why would I wish to lure
them back to a lesser

And if I believe that love
is not one of those things that you can't take with you 
then they have mine with them

And hopefully though I feel the urge
remember what cannot give by taking
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They Go to Prepare a Place

Audio Recordings, Relationships / tagged Death, Grief, Loss, Love / January 10, 2026 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com
It may not
be fatal to be loved by me
but sometimes it seems to be

I will not here name the names
most you will find in other poems
filled with yearnings of other homes
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Muses Had I Seven

Audio Recordings, Haiku, Relationships / tagged Grief, Loss, Love / January 9, 2026 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com
Who lit my life and left
true in joy and song
a lie in that muses do not die
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How Lonely

Audio Recordings, Family, Relationships / tagged Aphrodite, Connection, Dionysus, Hera, Medusa, mythology, Zeus / January 8, 2026 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com
How lonely must
the Greeks have been 
to create so many gods

All powerful fathers
all manner of mothers

Sisters, brothers, cousins
for one to embrace or fear

an aunt with snaky hair
an uncle over fond of wine

nobody wants to go 
to a party without a story to tell
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Never Alone

Audio Recordings, Poems about Poetry / tagged Companionship, Literature / January 7, 2026 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com
You need never sleep alone
if there's room in your bed for a book

Dickinson might have had Emerson
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For the Poetry

Audio Recordings, Family, Farm, Flight, Personal Growth, Poems about Poetry, Ranch Life, Relationships / tagged Education / January 6, 2026 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com
For the poetry
I have walked long walks
on large ranch with faithful dog
and picked the crocus from the earth

For the poetry
I have comforted 
a mother and bowed to a father

Gone to schools
that taught strange things
and passed them on to others

Fallen in love and never out
rode horses and flown planes
and built buildings stick by stick
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  1. Anonymous on CirclesJanuary 18, 2026

    Both Gloria and I were touched by your poem. Congrats. Tom and Gloria

  2. 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…

  3. barbara joy on MessagesJanuary 16, 2026

    profound

  4. 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…

  5. 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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