Neil Meili

Zen Cowboy Poet & Freelance Philosopher

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Tag Archives: Philosophy

What Would Francis Do

Audio Recordings / tagged Example, Funeral, Grief, Hope, Humility, Peace, Philosophy / April 26, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

For Jorge Mario Begoglio 1936 - 2025
Pope Francis the First 2013 - 2025

A papacy
based on a monk's modest message
closes with the destroying
of the ring and a simple wooden casket

A casket not to be carried aloft as of old
but at the level of the people equal in God's eye

The famous prayer of St. Francis of Assisi
begins, Lord make me an instrument of your peace

This is what Jorge asked and what he and we received

Jeanne-Marie Makes Bread

Audio Recordings, Poems about Poetry, Relationships / tagged Baking, Philosophy, sensuality / November 16, 2024 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

She thinks about
the stillness of hummingbird
and motion at the heart of stone

The love that holds
and the love that allows

The soft wisdom of sheep
and meaning in moon and stars

Flouring her hands
she kneads the poem and the bread

Shapes them with centuries
of deep woman knowing

Leans down
and kisses the rising loaf

The Tao Jones Average

Audio Recordings, Relationships / tagged Balance, Perspective, Philosophy, Self Awareness / November 9, 2024 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

That squiggly line on every graph

Between
the doing and the being
Between
the grasping and the letting go

Between
the white dot in the black
and the black dot in the white

of us all

Selfie

Audio Recordings, Personal Growth / tagged Greeks, Narcissism, Philosophy, Technology / October 20, 2023 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Know thyself Socrates said

Might not have meant
from the end of a long stick

Lifelong wisdom search or Click

Growing Younger – Greece 2000

Audio Recordings, Travel / tagged Aging, Humor, Philosophy, Socrates, Wisdom / October 19, 2023 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Standing in front of the statues of the wise
noting how very wise they were
to be born at a ripe old age
and grow younger every year

Socrates for instance
(469-399)
certainly got it right
being born at seventy
and working backwards
to that point of light

Greece – Independence Day 2000

Audio Recordings, Travel / tagged Conformity, Philosophy / September 13, 2023 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

We stand in the sunlight of Athens
birthplace of democracy, philosophy
theatre and reason

Here man First learned
true freedom

Created gods
in the image of his vices and his virtues
and learned to embrace and best them all

Stores in Athens close for the parade
people gather from miles around

For hours past the viewing stand
soldiers and sailors march in step

Overhead the jets and choppers
roar by in strict formation

Thirty deep and more
people push and flow and smile on cue

I search the marchers and the crowd
Looking for that one toga, one book
One independent mind - One ancient Greek

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

Counting Votes

Audio Recordings, News / tagged Choice, Philosophy, Politics / November 11, 2022 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Horevo Kathestos

Audio Recordings, Poems about Poetry / tagged Greece, Philosophy, Teacher, War / March 19, 2022 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Socrates was a solider in his youth
quick on his feet enough to stay alive

Slower and quicker in the Agora
Horevo kathestos - dancing sitting down

Humming a tune still stuck in our heads

1 Reply

Musings of a Reformed Philosopher

Audio Recordings / tagged Philosophy, Wisdom / August 1, 2020 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

IT Is no longer
a question

of how many angels
on the head of a pin

but how many
can he dance with — Caryatides, Erechteion, Parthenon on the Acropolis in Athens, Greece

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Nancy Fierstien on Hard to Get War Poems to RhymeJune 3, 2025
Thanks for sharing this one, my friend. It packs a good punch, line after line. I'll be glad to give…
Christie flaman on Going ProMay 17, 2025
Old cowboy saying: Never a horse that couldn’t be rode, never a cowboy that couldn’t be thrown Thank you for…
Ken Christopher on Going ProMay 16, 2025
That’s pretty funny, and fun to read
Nancy Fierstien on Spring Came InMay 12, 2025
You've certainly captured these crazy times with finesse and grace, my Friend!
Nancy Fierstien on Remembering WhenMay 8, 2025
I'm betting "slow motion" was never your style!

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