Neil Meili

Zen Cowboy Poet & Freelance Philosopher

Skip to content

Home
Contact
Neil’s Books
Poems
Kind Words
A Neil a Day Poems

Home Again

Audio Recordings, Family, Personal Growth, Relationships / November 27, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

You could go home again
if you and home were the same

Longing for Family

Audio Recordings, Family, Relationships / tagged Connection, Disconnection, Loneliness, Siblings / November 26, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

I was an only child
the second of five

We were often in
the same house

sometimes attended
the same schools
churches too

and are searching
for each other still

1 Reply

Earning the Knowing Nod

Audio Recordings, Relationships / tagged Community, Connections, Experience, Recognition / November 25, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

You have been to the same school
sat at the same desk with a tack on the seat
and a ruler
with a ruler rapping your knuckles raw

You have been equally
but differently broken and healed by love

You meet across a room or in a grocery or airplane aisle

They nod, you nod, you both smile

Modern Medicine It Ain’t

Audio Recordings, Cattle, Cows, Farm, Ranch Life / November 24, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

10 cc's of Carnation Milk

Inject it just beneath the skin
pink eye cured in a Hereford calf

Old wives remedies you say
maybe that's how they got that way

Reincarnation Milk

Audio Recordings, Family, Nostalgia, Remembering / tagged Connection, Flavor, Food / November 22, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

This only works for one generation
but memories of food can conjure them back

Every lemon meringue
in the world has mother in its color and clouds

Any key lime pie, Longhi's in Lahaina before the fire

All moussaka anywhere is Momma's on Mykonos

And even Carnation milk
which I never liked, brings Dad to the kitchen table

Cowversations

Audio Recordings, Cattle, Cowboy Poetry, Cows, Farm, Ranch Life / tagged Communication, Humor / November 21, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

One of the reasons I got out of ranching
was the long drought of good conversation

Cowhands
true to their fame are men of few words

Horses ain't bad
they will at least point their ears and pretend

But cows, it was the cows that did it
how they'd saucer eye like listening
while you chewed them out in detail
about all the dumb things that they'd done

Turn away to ruminate upon the lesson
and two days later kick you for no reason

Conversations with Horses

Audio Recordings, Farm, Ranch Life / tagged Animals, Communication / November 20, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

I never had a horse that talked to me
like Mister Ed on sixties TV

If I had I might have learned a lot

I did talk to them of course
but mostly by knee and rein and spur
and sometimes thank you for a job well done

As for messages for me, I can only imagine
- or count the number of times bucked off

Dances with Horses

Audio Recordings, Cowboy Poetry, Family, Farm, Ranch Life / tagged Horses / November 19, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

And what is the poem of Rusty
who slips at full gallop and picks up all four feet
and sets them down sure on the next dry spot

Of Lady so afraid of wire
she can buck fourteen hours tired
if a four inch chunk should strike a hoof

And the dance of the wild mare ikn the corral
who kicks and one foot goes by on each side of your head

And of the cold separated from mother's flank
by a gunny sack in the face and a quick gate
who turns a tight arc and comes back at you, and you see it in the eyes and duch and he sails over
taking out the top rail

And you hear that your father gave you
the first compliment you've ever hear of
by turning to the man beside him and saying

"The damned fool will get himself killed someday"

That Dog Won’t Hunt

Audio Recordings, Relationships / tagged Abuse, Bad behavior / November 18, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Just because your dog loves you
is no license to do
unforgivable things to others
expecting them to forgive you too

A Little to the Right

Audio Recordings, Relationships / tagged Communication, Misunderstanding, Understanding / November 17, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

How does the heron
learn about refraction
and that the fish is not
where the fish appears to be

It is a matter of survival I suppose

Like me learning the difference
and the angle of intent
between what you said
and what you meant

Post navigation

← Older posts

Newer posts →

Search

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.

Anonymous on CirclesJanuary 18, 2026
Both Gloria and I were touched by your poem. Congrats. Tom and Gloria
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…
barbara joy on MessagesJanuary 16, 2026
profound
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…
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…

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 Loss Love Mother Music Nature Perspective Poetry Prairie Psychology Ranch Life Regret Religion sensuality Solitude Spring Voice Dialogue War Winter Wisdom

©2015 Neil Meili. All Right Reserved.

Theme Designed By ThemeVan | Powered by WordPress

Loading Comments...

Write a Comment...

Email

Name

Website