Neil Meili

Zen Cowboy Poet & Freelance Philosopher

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Tag Archives: Death

A Leaf in a Million

Audio Recordings, Nature / tagged Death, Life, Seasons, Trees / October 2, 2026 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Could I adopt a leaf in bud and cheer its birth
twould be all I'd need to know of spring

Follow its green shade from dawn to dusk
all I'd need to know of summer

Marvel at the colours of its fruited wisdom
all I'd need to know of fall

And when it falls, as all must fall
act the un-grim raker

My Uncle Shot My Dog

Audio Recordings, Cowboy Poetry, Family, Farm, Ranch Life, Relationships / tagged Blame, Childhood, Death, Forgiveness, Grief, pets / September 27, 2026 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

My uncle shot my dog

My ever loving ever loyal saved me from the coyotes
Went back to the ranch to lead my parents to me
stuck in the mud - just like in the movies - Lassie dog

My uncle shot my dog

Maybe she had took to bitin' people
if she did I'm sure they had it coming

Maybe she'd got to eatin' the chickens
if she did she'd earned every one

Maybe she was old and sick and hurtin'
maybe she was better off dead than alive

I don't remember anyone saying that
but I doubt it would've helped
Not when it's your best friend - and you're five

My uncle shot my dog

My uncle shot my dog
and went to his grave unforgiven
Maybe I can get it done before I go to mine

2 Replies

Little Finnegan’s Wake

Audio Recordings / tagged Death, Determination, Dogs, James Joyce, Literature, Loyalty, pets, Tenacity / September 21, 2026 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

"Finnegan's Wake"
is a model of travail over time

It took James Joyce 17 years to write
and might take you that long to read

Finnegan is also the name
of a little Jack Russell Terrier
who went hiking with her master
Rich Moore near Pagosa Springs, Colorado

They found them seventy-two days later
on a rugged slope in the San Juan Mountains
Rich leaning dead against a yellow pine
and Finnegan still fiercely standing guard
Neilther Finnegan nor Joyce know how to give up

Click here to read more about Finney’s harrowing journey: https://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/exploration-survival/richard-moore-jack-russell-terrier-pagosa-springs/

9-11 (Faces)

Audio Recordings, Remembering / tagged Death, Terrorism, Twin Towers / September 12, 2026 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Hiroshima, Baghdad
and a thousand other places
This time with faces

9-11 (September)

Audio Recordings, Haiku, News, Remembering / tagged Death, Questioning, Terrorism, Twin Towers / September 11, 2026 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

New York September
Two new holes in the sky
children ask why

25 Years Later

Ode to the Farmer

Audio Recordings, Farm, Ranch Life / tagged Accidents, Danger, Death, Harvest, Nourishment, Work / August 17, 2026 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

No one will be surprised by the report
that farming is a very dangerous sport

What flappig empty-fingered gloves
point back to momentary lapses
What limbs with what power
have been taken off
by power take-offs

What tendons snapped like glass
and bones cut clean as grass
by unthinking mowers

And what of those neighbours
dead and true
who for a minute forgetting
what they knew
through red machines
combined with their grain

All these have earned a dusty tear
and many a "who's next" fear

Year after year after year

And yet deep in the soils of time
the seeds of goodness
are growing
while the world
turns in slow seasons

And he will be ready
when at last they declare
a true war on poverty
and are willing to bomb
with wheat

Tears II

Audio Recordings / tagged Cremation, Death, Grief, Loss, Mourning / July 22, 2026 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

If you cry
when smoke gets in your eye

Don't try
dumping ashes from an urn
into a wind as twisty-tailed as life

Lost at Sea

Audio Recordings / tagged Aging, Death, Decline, Disease / July 15, 2026 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Uncles, aunts, old friends and more
all sinking below the metaphor
on the way to that distant shore

The keel hauling of cancer
Walking Gehrig's plank with ALS

Handing from the yardarm
of emphysema's choking rope

The lighting stroke of stroke

The sudden iceberg of heart attack

The slow arctc crush of hoary old age
or slowly sailing, deeper and deeper
into Alzheimers' fog-bound banks

There are a thousand ways
to get back to the launching line

Not sure I'm ready to speculate on mine

1 Reply

Aunt Eileen

Audio Recordings, Family, Relationships / tagged Connections, Death, Grief / July 14, 2026 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

The death of my aunt
came when I had been at the sea
and my pores were open

She entered quickly

Dragging shadows of other deaths
aunts, uncles, father, friends

All loud with the clanking
of the chains that still bind

The Merry Go Roller Coaster Round

Audio Recordings / tagged Birth, Circle of Life, Death, Dying, Living / July 2, 2026 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

The price you pay
for getting on this ride
is having to get off

Still want a ticket

2 Replies

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Anonymous on FallingOctober 4, 2026
Beautiful
Sandi Hebley on Word DivisionsOctober 1, 2026
Thank you, crazy poet!
Sandi Hebley on Qu’Appelle and ESLSeptember 29, 2026
😢😢😢
Sandi Hebley on OutdigenousSeptember 28, 2026
Wow!
Sandi Hebley on My Uncle Shot My DogSeptember 27, 2026
😢😢🤗

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