Neil Meili

Zen Cowboy Poet & Freelance Philosopher

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An Invitation

Uncategorized / September 21, 2018 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Neil wanders the world in awe – Mirrors and metaphor everywhere. You can join him on this journey with a Poem in your Inbox every day.  CLICK HERE to start today

Waxing Poetic

Audio Recordings, Poems about Poetry / December 20, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com
With old wooden skis
you hot waxed the bottoms
and polished them til they shone and slid
It is an art and a craft learned and earned

In the days before lifts
you climbed back each time to the top

There is a joy in the well carved run
both in the doing and in the watching

Poets love metaphor and simile
love the waxing and the polishing
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Seeking While Yet Fearing Fame

Audio Recordings / tagged Adoration, Fame, Fear, Stardom / December 19, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com
Groupies are fine
one or two at a time

for they bring a love
of such innocent ferocity
that it calls out for reciprocity

Even Marilyn could not sleep
with every soldier on a USO tour
the weight of their wanting
lifting her and pulling her down

Though the risk of such is slim 
I carefully fence my egoings in
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Trouble in Paradise

Audio Recordings, Relationships / tagged Death, Marriage / December 18, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com
(for Alfred Huffstickler) 

You were reading 
at the Northwest Austin Borders
Line I remember went something like this

She wanted me to say forever, and so I thought, why not, I have said forever so many times before

But now dear Huff, now that you have stepped into forever

What will you say to all of them now
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The Icon

Audio Recordings, Poems about Poetry, Relationships / tagged Art & Artists, Fame, Fans / December 17, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com
The icon and I
read at the same venue

I like his poetry
but am not sure
that he even hears mine
surrounded as he is
by the iron filings of fans

No matter I think
I have the gift of his words
and an iron filing or two of my own

We may nod as we pass
on the way to the stage

As similar as magnets
the shy poles repelling
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Bukowski and Purdy

Audio Recordings, Poems about Poetry / tagged Art & Artists / December 16, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com
Bukowski in his coffin, dead as hell
reaching for one last beer and almost making it  - Allen Purdy

Purdy was not Canada's Bukowski
although he might have wished to be

You can't say that kind of shit
and "I'm sorry" at the same time
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Dinner with Robert Bly

Audio Recordings, Poems about Poetry / tagged Art & Artists / December 15, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com
Bly orders oysters like Hafiz and Rumi
Richest food on the menu
Swallows them whole
Offers them to all who share his table
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Building Roads with Alden

Audio Recordings, Poems about Poetry, Remembering / tagged Work / December 14, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com
If there comes a time when truck drivers read poetry, mine will be the poetry they'll read. - Alden Nowlan

I'd like to think
if someone from the day shift
had left a book of Alden's on the seat

and I'd picked it up
while waiting for the spreader

Young tho I was, and trucker proud
of the silver badges on my belt
and the black ribbon we were laying

he'd have had a hard time getting it back

The Author, at age 18, drove for Ramsey and Bird paving highways in Southern Saskatchewan. Silver badges were Chauffeur’s Licenses required for professional drivers

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Alden Nowlan’s Beard

Audio Recordings, Poems about Poetry / December 13, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com
The beard of Alden Nowlan 
is a Maritimes beard

A Nova Scotia beard 
and a New Brunswick Beard

A beard wind-thinned 
and pain gurled

With a beard like that 
best not sleep on the rocky ground

Well before morn it would grow into
what it grew out of
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Oh to Neruda

Audio Recordings, Poems about Poetry, Relationships / tagged Chile, Love, Patriotism, sensuality / December 12, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com
Oh Pablo you rise up
from a land, long as a woman's back

And you have loved your land
as you would love a woman
and you have loved women as you loved
your land

Every rock and shoal of their coastlines
every mood of their tides

You have caressed them
with your mind and your heart
and your hands

And you have received the treasures
that must always rise up
from their endless depths
to meet such a touch

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Missing Leonard

Audio Recordings, Poems about Poetry / tagged Grief / December 11, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com
Leonard Cohen is gone
He doesn't call, he doesn't write

So huddle with me now
fellow worshipers and weepers

Huddle with me now
round the poem and the song
and listen for the breadcrumbs
and the hint of old perfume

that speak of other ways to God
that through the holes
in Jesus and the goddess
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  1. NEIL MEILI on Grocery Shopping in AustinDecember 13, 2025

    Thanks Pamela, Love to see some of your haiku and you and Pamela in the new year. All blessings, Neil…

  2. pat psooy on Saturday Night in AustinDecember 6, 2025

    Kinda like that better than the shining lights of Vegas

  3. Pamela on Grocery Shopping in AustinDecember 5, 2025

    Hi Neil! And Neil is still Neil! Hoping to see you and Dorsey in the new year. My poems have…

  4. Nancy Fierstien on Don’t Judge A House By Its CoverDecember 3, 2025

    Another terse verse way to capture the way I feel about living under a blue tin roof for almost 30…

  5. Iudita Harlan on Longing for FamilyNovember 26, 2025

    Neil Lovely poem. Sending love to you and Darcy. Iudita

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