Neil Meili

Zen Cowboy Poet & Freelance Philosopher

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Tag Archives: Connection

Round Tables

Ranch Life, Relationships / tagged Community, Connection, Politics / November 4, 2026 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

He loved his neighbors, but not out loud
(Only by default could we tell if he was proud
men did not hug their friends or children then)
There were no women in the bar
and all the tables round and small
heavy with ashtray and pilsner draft
where they talked code till closing time

Politics of any stripe meant you are my brother
The weather, whatever the weather
meant I love you too

Touch

Audio Recordings, Farm, Ranch Life / tagged Animals, Connection, Technology / October 10, 2026 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

If people didn't need petting zoos
there wouldn't be any

In the parking lot
the metal waits to take them back

Word Divisions

Audio Recordings, Cowboy Poetry, Pilots, Poems about Poetry, Relationships / tagged Communication, Connection, Optimism / October 1, 2026 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

You can know your native language
and still feel all alone
as pilots talk to pilots
in a code that's all their own

Yet not even one to one
can they share that love of air
or touch the other's feelings
of the fear and beauty there

Sailors talk to sailors
of wind and sail and rope
of nights upon the ocean
of courage and of hope

Yet the words just can't convey
their love of sea and air
nor touch the other's feelings
of the fear and beauty there

And though cowboys talk to cowboys
in a special kind of drawl
there's still a space between them
the words can't tell at all

Not those nights of cold and stars
with coyotes on the air
nor the call of open spaces
with the fear and beauty there

Watch as lovers talk to lovers
in ways only two can share
as they build between them
a framework light and fair

While a web that's spun of maybes
hangs so fragile in the air
that one false word can shatter
into pain, the beauty there

And yet

There are still some crazy poets
out riding hatless in the sun
still trying to do the very thing
we all know can't be done

Still Quioting for a language
that can speak to everyone

1 Reply

Coyote Eyes

Audio Recordings, Poems about Poetry / tagged Connection, Dogs, Music / August 12, 2026 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

It is Austin
so a poet is running for mayor

We stop by a backyard party
in our neighbourhood to meet
greet and hopefully support her

It is Austin
so there is an eight piece band
The Bob Katz and they're very good

A dog with coyote eyes
comes up and wants to be my friend
so I make up
a Coyote Eyes, Coyote Eyes song
and sing it to her while the band
lights up Johnny Cash's Ring of Fire

and she looks up at me with thosse coyote eyes
and we are very much in love
but I am late for a poetry reading
at the English Café and have to leave
so she goes and sits by another man
She is looking up at him with those coyote eyes
I think she is trying to tell him
about the song

The Question

Audio Recordings, Family, Farm, Ranch Life, Relationships / tagged Connection, Conversation, Sharing / June 21, 2026 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

There's Dad sitting
by the after branding fire
with some after branding beers

And we get to talking
heart to heart
of trails together and apart

And of the things we saw
which one brought us awe

Invitation By Flower

Audio Recordings, Nature, Relationships / tagged Connection, Love / June 9, 2026 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Little lantana growing
through old bench boards

Saying Come sit with me
and we will be flowers three

Let us smile at one another
like there will never be another

The Albums

Audio Recordings, Family, Nostalgia, Relationships, Remembering / tagged Aging, Connection, Pictures / June 6, 2026 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Mother's shrinkage was marked by domicile

House, apartment, retirement and nursing home
shedding at each move, furniture, china and art
except for, and never, the old photo albums
heavy in padded leather brown and green

Each visit when conversation stuttered to a stall
(Religion all but Baptist drowned and what use is weather without crops)
out would come the albums
and in we all would dive
for pennies bright and shiny
at the bottom of the pool

Here's one from 1958
How young the queen looked then

1 Reply

GOD / DOG / MIRROR

Audio Recordings / tagged Afterlife, Companionship, Connection, Death, pets / May 28, 2026 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

For Kenny Wirges

God is Dog in a mirrror
Dog is God in a mirror

Kenny had always
a dog at his side

Now he lives in that space
between mirrors
with one on either side

Dogs and Boys

Audio Recordings, Relationships / tagged Companionship, Connection, Dogs, Love, pets / May 25, 2026 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Twenty thousand years
they walked the plains together

The boy did not know that
The dog did not know that

Or did they

Photo of author’s Uncle Bruce with Pepper circa 1928

One More For Kenny

Audio Recordings, Family, Relationships / tagged Connection, Death, Grief, Loss, Separation / May 15, 2026 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

We were Siamese cousins
joined at the hip

So adept we never stepped
on each others toes

God the great and clumsy surgeon
has divided us

Wearing the right clothes
the scar doesn't show
but people sometimes wonder
why I walk in circles

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Sandi Hebley on What You Missed By Not Going to a One Room SchoolNovember 9, 2026
We city girls never got that experience.
Anonymous on Rule BritannicaNovember 6, 2026
Amen to that.
Sandi Hebley on Ready for WinterOctober 26, 2026
😁😁
NEIL MEILI on Laughing With the DeadOctober 25, 2026
Thanks for the story Sandi, And bet he is and that I would have liked him Neil
Sandi Hebley on Okay Now – MostlyOctober 22, 2026
🤗

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