Neil Meili

Zen Cowboy Poet & Freelance Philosopher

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A Neil a Day Poems

First Art Project

Audio Recordings, Family, Farm, Ranch Life / tagged Art & Artists, Discipline, Discouragement / July 29, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Working with Father

Audio Recordings, Cattle, Family, Farm, Nostalgia, Ranch Life, Relationships / tagged Chores, Work / July 28, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

In the short days of a long winter
we sort nuts, bolt, and washers
against the busy days of summer

Place them in well-marked bins
accompanied always by his mentor's
Never waste five dollars worth of time
looking for a five cent bolt

The 9/16th fine-threads do not go in
with the regular or coarse

When you're four
it's not hard to geet up
at four to ride in the cattle truck to the city with your dad
excitement keeps you awake all night

There are know you need to know
reef, sheepshank, and the ever popular bowline that can still be undone even after looping a red bull weighing a ton

Hood the twine around your little finger just so, in a way that I could never get, three turns and knot the gunny sack in two seconds flat

Heel that calf, or turn the herd
drive the truck at the perfect speed
to catch the combine on the fly

There is a great deal of pleasure in doing something right, when right is the only way anything should ever be done

But never far, even yet
from the red-black cloud
of doing it wrong

The Magic of Moose Jaw

Audio Recordings, Cattle, Cows, Family, Farm, Nostalgia, Ranch Life, Relationships, Travel / July 27, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Who could sleep the night before
going to town in the truck with Dad

Him and me in the front
white faced cows in the back
mooing it clear they wanted to stay
as much as I wanted to go

There would be the stockyards
and building bigger than a barn
and lunch at the Harwood Hotel
veal cutlets for him, burger for me

Two men together, five and thirty five
one driving home in the afternoon sun
one curled up on the seat

For Mary Who Loves Horses

Audio Recordings, Farm, Ranch Life, Relationships / tagged Boundries, Freedom / July 26, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

I have ridden the fence line
without believing in fences

I have been one with the movement of horse
the strength and speed of horse
the grace of horse and the
soul of horse

I have been one with the wind
and the high rolling hills
and the sky

I have stepped down
with my hands filled with staples and pliers

For the welfare of cattle and neighbours
who still have need of believing
in fences

Thrown

Audio Recordings, Relationships / tagged Heartbreak, Surprise, Vulnerability / July 25, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

You know that old expression

You threw me when you said that

Well, you threw me when you said that

I was on a quarter horse once
turning a barrel like only a quarter horse can
when the cinch broke

Centrifugally flung, I hung
a long moment speeding lateral in the air
before I remembered
how to roll up and hit the ground
without being hurt too bad

You really threw me when you said that

I didn't have time to roll

1 Reply

Poets, Pilots & Cowboys

Audio Recordings, Cowboy Poetry, Flight, Pilots, Poems about Poetry, Ranch Life / July 24, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

A poet will try to dissect the world
and he'll try to show you each part
and he'll write it all down with a pen
that he's dipped in an old carin' heart

While pilots hae the eyes of a hawk
and a strut in the way that they walk
and they give all that's in them to give
and they live every moment they live

And most cowboys are gentle not loud
and they're not all that good in a crowd
and they talk like they're about half asleep
but what they know boys and girls
they know deep

The Cowboys The Pilots and Poets

Audio Recordings, Cowboy Poetry, Pilots, Poems about Poetry, Relationships / July 23, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

The Cowboys the Pilots and Poets
The girls they say love them all

For the pilots have and air of the danger
of those who can die if they fall

While a poet's crushed - petal scent
reflects all their beauty and pain

And a cowboy has a feel of the open
and a smell we won't speak of again

Maybe the pilots help them feel
life's edge of purest blue

While the poets act as mirrors
to depths they never knew

And the cowboys oh the cowboys
can touch them where it hurts

And they've got those fast
snap button shirts

Headwind

Audio Recordings, Flight, Pilots / tagged Close Call, Gratitude, Luck / July 22, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Heading west for stampede city
doing two miles a minute through air
with a Chinook pouring over the mountains
and a risisng feeling that you'll never get there

You're going slower and slower
over the rough wind-swept ground
and you don't want to land in that field
and of course, you don't dare turn around

The needle and your knees
are all three on empty knocking
and if you had a car, you'd pull over
get out the old can, and start walking

But you've made it, you land, and you park
and you know there's someone you've got to thank
when the boys but thirty-two gallons
in a thirty-two-gallon tank

Charlie Golf Xray November Golf

Audio Recordings, Flight, Pilots, Poems about Poetry / tagged Airplanes / July 21, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

STOL stands for
Short Take Off and Landing

Get off the ground
in a hunderd and fifty feet
stick a landing in about the same

Looking for a metaphor

November Eight Triple One Golf

Audio Recordings, Flight, Pilots / tagged Airplanes / July 20, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

May you all be blessed
by a friend such as this

A friend that will forgive
full flaps at full speed

and a mercy stop in an alfalfa field
at the cost of a belly scrape

A Friend that will take you
the length of the canyon grand
west to east in the sunset's glow
below the rim and the radar's paint

And never whisper a word

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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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