Neil Meili

Zen Cowboy Poet & Freelance Philosopher

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Tag Archives: Struggle

The Spread

Audio Recordings / tagged Cost of Living, Fear, Income, Inflation, Struggle, Survival / June 5, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

"Two hours of pushing broom buys and eight-by-twelve four-bit room" - Roger Miller "King of the Road"

Have you noticed since
whenever it was you started out

That the gap between having nothing and enough
to eat and a safe place to sleep
has been steadily growing year by year

And even them that covered the spread today
aren't sure how long it's going to stay that way

or build fences high enough to keep that fear away

“King of the Road” by Roger Miller

Not All Shadows

Audio Recordings, Relationships, Travel / tagged Grief, Guilt, Leaving, Regret, Sadness, Struggle / April 12, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Not all shadows come in black
or go away when the sun strikes noon

Most airlines
don't charge for unchecked baggage
although it's the heaviest thing
on the plane when you're heading home

Doing the Work

Audio Recordings, Personal Growth / tagged Depression, Faith, Growth, Struggle, Therapy / February 25, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Dark nights
of the soul may come again

This time I will have more candles

Pulling Pipe

Audio Recordings, Cattle, Cows, Family, Farm, Poems about Poetry, Ranch Life / tagged Community, Heroes, Struggle, Work / September 18, 2024 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Trouble down the well
and me, my dad and my brothers
are Texas roughnecks

pulling, spinning and stacking pipe
pipe and rod and "Careful dammit!
If you drop that rod the well is shot"

We're Red Adair, fighting a fire
we're wet and muddy and cold and made
and we've got to get it done by dark

The gold down there's not black but red
and iron rich sea hiding away
from the pulling power of the prairie sun

Looking back fifty years from a poet's perch

I pull, spin and stack
metaphor and meaining

Back then it was just men
doing what they had to do

and white-faced cattle waiting

Lost Octopus

Audio Recordings, Relationships / tagged Friendship, Loneliness, Pain, Struggle / July 3, 2024 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Oh how we flail
when we're hurt and unheard

Surely we can find
somewhere anywhere to connect

One listening friend would be great
and, better yet, two or four or eight

Hope

Audio Recordings, Personal Growth / tagged Adversity, Hope, Optimism, Struggle, Tenacity / April 18, 2023 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

World hard and harder
walls and paths build
stone by stone
in the cracks - flowers

Fear piled on pain
stone paths merge
with rock wall rise
in the cracks - flowers

Hard days and hard nights
path of pain joins wall of fear
in the cracks - flowers

Countries

Travel / tagged Struggle / March 18, 2020 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Texas and Canada both born of push and pain
Like provinces and states will never be
Cut as they were along the dotted lines of cesarean birth

The Republic of Texas was a sovereign nation in North America that existed from October 2, 1835, to February 19, 1846

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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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