Neil Meili

Zen Cowboy Poet & Freelance Philosopher

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Tag Archives: Education

How He Read Himself Right Off The Ranch

Audio Recordings, Farm, Personal Growth, Ranch Life / tagged Education / December 10, 2023 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

He’d had some teachers growing up
that opened some gates that never closed

so every time he took a load of cows
to town he brought back a load of books
and the ranch
got smaller as the world got bigger

When a horse takes to chewing
corral rails (folks call it cribbing)
you pretty much have to shoot him
or let him go

And that’s how he got away

Poet Laureate at Ninety Five

Audio Recordings, Poems about Poetry / tagged Adversity, Aging, Art & Artists, Education, Resilience / August 12, 2023 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

The new poet laureate is ninety five
he’s been working on his demons
for a long long time

Six weeks before the poet was born
his father burns his demons out
by drinking carbolic acid in the park

Mother burns father’s pictures
forbids mention of his name

Young Stanley finds one in the attic
and asks about the man

She tears the picture to shreds
without a word, and slaps him hard
six decades later he still felt the sting

Bright boy gets scholarship to Harvard
Okay but forget about teaching classes
these were not the days when a Jewish boy
could teach their ivy league asses

Marries a poet, moves to honeymoon farm
she disappears, never to be heard from again

The new poet laureate has had plenty of pain
each day he wakes as a poet, not a man of ninety five
still seeing everything new – still glad to be alive

Stanley Kunitz, Poet Laureate, Pulitzer Prize Winner, Teacher and Gardener (July 1905 – May 2006)

Little School on the Prairie

Audio Recordings / tagged Bilingualism, Education, Mistakes, School, Small Town / August 5, 2023 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Rural Saskatchewan's
attempts at bilingualism
were not always a success

School monument with misspelled ÉCOLE (the French word for school)

1 Reply

The Treasure of the Wilcox Madre

Audio Recordings / tagged Athol Murray College of Notre Dame, Books, Education, Nuremberg Chronicle, Technology / May 23, 2023 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

The gold in the archives
like the gold of new Spain
must be dug for again and again

The men who died in the digging
remembered by our holding it high

Today bandits are bandwidths of tech
where the young now search for shine
and find much fool’s gold salting the mine

There have been dark ages before
we owe what we know to storers of lore

Delphi was a library filled with knowings
though famed of oracle fueled by fumes

These are days for storing and sharing
Pere gathered the grain for filling this bin
let’s keep the fumes out – let the students in

The Archives Museum at the Athol Murray College of Notre Dame contains many treasures and rare books dating back hundreds of years including a copy of The Nuremberg Chronicle from 1493.

1 Reply

Pere Loved the Greeks

Audio Recordings, Remembering / tagged Adversity, Athol Murray College of Notre Dame, Education, Hunger, Philosophy / May 22, 2023 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

All day
we sit with the great men of Athens
learn about the birth of reason
and how reason learned to fly

At night return
to the cold, hungry, shacks of our Sparta
each with a wolf gnawing under his cloak
too proud to cry out if we die

Pere as Miner

Audio Recordings / tagged Athol Murray College of Notre Dame, Education, Learning, Passion / May 21, 2023 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Reading until 2:00 am
rushing into class next morning
with every new idea
like a miner who'd just struck gold

“Pere” – Father Athol Murray, founder of Notre Dame College in Wilcox, Saskatchewan

Tabby La Rosa

Audio Recordings, Farm, Nature, Ranch Life / tagged Cats, Education, Horses, Kittens, Learning / May 15, 2023 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Horses are cats
they just want to be
petted and loved

Although
when you neglect to do so
they are much more likely
to send you flying
than piss on your best Persian mat

That sort of thing is reserved for cats
and cats are not horses
and deeply resent being ridden

as every toddling two-year-old
in history (unable to read history)
will have to have etched
on the blank slates of their skin

Hope Flowers

Audio Recordings, Travel / tagged Education, Israel, Palestine, War / April 19, 2023 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

In Bethlehem a refugee
with sadness but no hate decreed
Another generation is what we need

And a school where the children
of the refugees of holocausts
and refugees of refugees
can learn together
learn to look inward f irst

This is a most beautiful and special place
with such regard for dignity and respect
so successful in their message of love
so f illed with fairness to each side

That Arafat’s Palestinians burn their busses
and Israelis torture teachers and riddle walls

While Caterpillars sent from across the sea
creep closer each day in their wonderful
mindless mechanical way with leveling intent

To be met with Gandhi smiles
and your help, if you give it

www.hopeflowersschool.org

1 Reply

Tree Rings

Audio Recordings, Environment, Nature, Relationships / tagged Aging, Education, Growth, Mentors / January 31, 2023 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Touring the Camps

Audio Recordings, Remembering / tagged Education, Holocaust / January 30, 2023 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

All German schoolchildren visit the camps; this is Auschwitz II For more information about Yom Hashoah – Holocaust Remembrance Day visit https://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/us/yom-hashoah

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