Neil Meili

Zen Cowboy Poet & Freelance Philosopher

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In Translation

Audio Recordings, Remembering / tagged Atomic Bombs, Japan, Reconcilliation, Survival, Survivors, War, WWII / August 8, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

This week is
another Hiroshima anniversary
and this author's poems
are being translated into Japanese

They are in a book
of presence healing pain
what can they look
a Hibakusha in the eye and say

Hibakusha is the name given to those who survived the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings, which took place 80 years ago this week.

Picking Raspberries in a Short-Sleeved Shirt

Audio Recordings, Nature, Relationships / tagged Delight, Joy, Pain, Searching, Thorns / August 7, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

These are not roses
who will tear your heart out
with their beauty and its price

Though reaching through
the deepest bush
for the richest reds
will tickle-scratch you enough
to linger past taste buds fleeting joy

A Pickerel is Worth a Thousand Words

Audio Recordings / tagged Communication, Exageration, Fishing, Story / August 6, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Sometimes
you catch a fish so fine
it becomes the story teller

If you hold out your hands
to say "This big" it gets away

Memory Lane Jogging

Audio Recordings, Family, Nostalgia, Remembering / tagged Connections, Experience, Sharing, Story / August 5, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

There are things I remember I forgot
like the music of my father's swearing
when a heavy hammer had hit his thumb

And like the words that my mother said
when she called us all in to go to bed

There are others another layer down
that digging alone I would never find
that someone else has to bring to mind

So I listen to stories by family and friend
till strings pop up to pull with a knot at the end

1 Reply

Dad and Death at War

Audio Recordings / tagged Aging, Anger, Death, Friendship, Sadness, Surprise / August 4, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

There he was
dressed and spiffed and happy
to be going to his best friend’s party
when the call came in

He took off his coat
and loosed his shirt to let the red rise

God had sent him hail and sometimes rain
but it was all hail today

1 Reply

One for the Aunties

Audio Recordings, Family, Ranch Life / August 3, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Who midwifed my father into the world
in a packing crate shack in 1912

And washed up and went home
without mentioning
the blessed event to the government
(and no one else did either)

Forty years later he applies for a passport
and finds that he does not exist

Until they swear on their memory
and bring him into the world again

1 Reply

The Austrian Uncles

Audio Recordings, Family / August 2, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Already old when I was young
revered as I would hope to be when old

Two brothers married to two sisters
of my father's father

Great aunts
always as they've always been
busily bustling 'round the house

While the uncles somehow stay
both present and out of the way

Little china cups in work-hard hands
black coffee and home brew
sipping the day away

Beautiful

Audio Recordings, Family, Relationships / tagged Adoration, Aging, Love / August 1, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Dad in the hospital with family around
and a light in his fading eyes

Looking at Mom and saying
Isn't she beautiful

And we looked at her anew and she was

Beautiful as the bride in the old black and whites
forever in colour for him

Kodak Anniversary

Audio Recordings, Family, Relationships / tagged Growth, Love, Marriage / July 31, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

They married in black and white
we have the photos still

And grew it into color
we have those photos too

Fishing with Father

Audio Recordings, Family, Haiku, Relationships / tagged Connection / July 30, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Fishing with father
you might catch his attention
deepest fish in lake

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Sandi Hebley on How Fallen AngelsAugust 17, 2025
Indeed!
Nancy Fierstien on Unremember ThatAugust 16, 2025
Gonna be inclined to share this one at my Poets' Tea reading tomorrow afternoon. Thanks, Neil!
Sandi Hebley on Memory Lane JoggingAugust 5, 2025
Lovely!
Sandi Hebley on Dad and Death at WarAugust 4, 2025
😢
Sandi Hebley on One for the AuntiesAugust 3, 2025
Wow!

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