Neil Meili

Zen Cowboy Poet & Freelance Philosopher

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Tag Archives: Death

The Dead Are Good Tippers

Audio Recordings / tagged Care, Death, Gratitude / May 19, 2024 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

The hospice nurse
may change the bed
and think the dead are dead

Hurry home to feed the kids
and mend the things to mend

But if they feel a debt doth pend
she'll find out in the end

Lost at Sea

Audio Recordings, Relationships / tagged Aging, ALS, Alzheimers/Dementia, Cancer, Death, Disease / May 18, 2024 / 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 Gerhig's plank with ALS

Hanging from the yardarm
of emphysema's choking rope

The lightning stroke of stroke

The sudden iceberg of heart attack

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

There are a though sand ways
to get back to the launching line
Not sure I'm ready to speculate on mine

Aunt Eileen

Audio Recordings, Family, Relationships / tagged Death, Grief / May 17, 2024 / 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

Questions for the Next Séance

Audio Recordings, Family / tagged Communication, Curiosity, Death, Heaven, Regrets / May 11, 2024 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Dearest Mother;

Sorry to disturb you
in your well deserved bliss,
but here’s a short list
of things that I forgot to ask

And if it isn’t too much trouble
I’d like the answers as detailed as possible

It will be understandable
if you can’t conjure up a voice,
but one rap for yes, and two for no,
on a floating table won’t quite do

However, if you can look up Samuel Morse,
(who may well be bored and available),
he can give you a quick-study course
and I will dust off my old Boy Scout manual

I believe “talk to me” In Morse still becomes:

-/•-/•-••/-•- /— – – –/––•

So, now that we’ve got the hang of it;

– What was the best day of your life
– What was your worst
– Your greatest triumph
– Your greatest disappointment
– What you are happiest that you did
– Saddest that you didn’t

Why exactly did my uncle shoot my dog
Whatever happened to my baseball card collection, with the rookie Mickey Mantle

and what is heaven like

Sharon in Wings

Audio Recordings, Remembering / tagged Angels, Death, Friendship, Mourning / May 8, 2024 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Three years ago she left
the stage that Shakespeare speaks of
Yet still from the wings she whispers lines

Photo: Ornaments in Sharon’s Curly Bark Elm, San Marcos Texas, ever growing in beauty fed by her ashes in the soil and by Josh and Andrea

Dreams of Flying

Audio Recordings, Flight / tagged Death, Dreams / April 26, 2024 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

For getting out the window
the best stroke is the breaststroke
after you get up speed soaring is easy

I wonder if that's what dying is like

I wonder if Chagall
or Tibetan guides through the bardo
have any hints on how to stick the landing

Eclipsed

Audio Recordings, Relationships / tagged Death / April 9, 2024 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

When you were
my sun and moon
and all I saw was you

The sky was
filled with stars unseen
and now you're
one to me

Eclipse

Audio Recordings, Nature, Relationships / tagged Death / April 8, 2024 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

I've had
enough of total eclipse
each time they closed the casket

Never wearing
the right kind of glasses
to see the sun come out again

Another One for Eric

Audio Recordings / tagged Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Death / February 1, 2024 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

They say alcohol is a depressant
things go slower and slower

Like when you put the gun to your head

Pulled the trigger
and took ten years to fall down

The Death of a Thousand Cups

Audio Recordings, Relationships / tagged Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Death / January 31, 2024 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Some die by inches, some by ounces

Little by little he sank below the surface
each meeting less and less of him there
- a discussion without a quorum

It's been a few months now
and he hasn't appeared in dreams
or haunting our old haunts

It was so long
since he knew he was alive
he may not yet know that he is dead

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Nancy Fierstien on A Tear for the RichFebruary 23, 2026
Another gem worth it's weight in gold from you, Neil Meili!
Sandi Hebley on Lonely LightFebruary 12, 2026
How sweet!
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

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