Neil Meili

Zen Cowboy Poet & Freelance Philosopher

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A Neil a Day Poems

The Joy of Movement

Audio Recordings / tagged Physicality, sensuality / December 22, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Putting aside for the moment
The giving and getting of midnight joy
a body in motion is a thing of beauty

There is the throwing and catching
of any ball or stick or baton or lariat
the leaping over and the crawling under
The lifting of a baby, the holding of a hand
the flow of skating on ice or skiing on snow
The strength of lift and the subtlety of touch
which brings us back around to midnight

Poems Over Their Skis

Audio Recordings, Poems about Poetry, Relationships / tagged Connection / December 21, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Poems belong to those that need them
Mario to Pablo Neruda in Il Postino

Sometimes poets and poems
think they know who needs them

Who it will change for the better
or who might laud them loudly

Well meaning though they might be
they've lost the plot if there was one

Let them open Neruda anywhere
and pull the string to loose the bow
or the gift he gave to you he did not know

Waxing Poetic

Audio Recordings, Poems about Poetry / December 20, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

With old wooden skis
you hot waxed the bottoms
and polished them til they shone and slid
It is an art and a craft learned and earned

In the days before lifts
you climbed back each time to the top

There is a joy in the well carved run
both in the doing and in the watching

Poets love metaphor and simile
love the waxing and the polishing

Seeking While Yet Fearing Fame

Audio Recordings / tagged Adoration, Fame, Fear, Stardom / December 19, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Groupies are fine
one or two at a time

for they bring a love
of such innocent ferocity
that it calls out for reciprocity

Even Marilyn could not sleep
with every soldier on a USO tour
the weight of their wanting
lifting her and pulling her down

Though the risk of such is slim
I carefully fence my egoings in

Trouble in Paradise

Audio Recordings, Relationships / tagged Death, Marriage / December 18, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

(for Alfred Huffstickler)

You were reading
at the Northwest Austin Borders
Line I remember went something like this

She wanted me to say forever, and so I thought, why not, I have said forever so many times before

But now dear Huff, now that you have stepped into forever

What will you say to all of them now

The Icon

Audio Recordings, Poems about Poetry, Relationships / tagged Art & Artists, Fame, Fans / December 17, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Bukowski and Purdy

Audio Recordings, Poems about Poetry / tagged Art & Artists / December 16, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Bukowski in his coffin, dead as hell
reaching for one last beer and almost making it - Allen Purdy

Purdy was not Canada's Bukowski
although he might have wished to be

You can't say that kind of shit
and "I'm sorry" at the same time

Dinner with Robert Bly

Audio Recordings, Poems about Poetry / tagged Art & Artists / December 15, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Bly orders oysters like Hafiz and Rumi
Richest food on the menu
Swallows them whole
Offers them to all who share his table

Building Roads with Alden

Audio Recordings, Poems about Poetry, Remembering / tagged Work / December 14, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

If there comes a time when truck drivers read poetry, mine will be the poetry they'll read. - Alden Nowlan

I'd like to think
if someone from the day shift
had left a book of Alden's on the seat

and I'd picked it up
while waiting for the spreader

Young tho I was, and trucker proud
of the silver badges on my belt
and the black ribbon we were laying

he'd have had a hard time getting it back

The Author, at age 18, drove for Ramsey and Bird paving highways in Southern Saskatchewan. Silver badges were Chauffeur’s Licenses required for professional drivers

Alden Nowlan’s Beard

Audio Recordings, Poems about Poetry / December 13, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

The beard of Alden Nowlan
is a Maritimes beard

A Nova Scotia beard
and a New Brunswick Beard

A beard wind-thinned
and pain gurled

With a beard like that
best not sleep on the rocky ground

Well before morn it would grow into
what it grew out of

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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…
pat psooy on Saturday Night in AustinDecember 6, 2025
Kinda like that better than the shining lights of Vegas
Pamela on Grocery Shopping in AustinDecember 5, 2025
Hi Neil! And Neil is still Neil! Hoping to see you and Dorsey in the new year. My poems have…
Nancy Fierstien on Don’t Judge A House By Its CoverDecember 3, 2025
Another terse verse way to capture the way I feel about living under a blue tin roof for almost 30…
Iudita Harlan on Longing for FamilyNovember 26, 2025
Neil Lovely poem. Sending love to you and Darcy. Iudita

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