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

The Wall | El Muro

Audio Recordings, Poems about Poetry / tagged Art & Artists, Borders, Exclusion, Investment / May 21, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

They will soon be building a wall
fifty feet high and a thousand miles long
On every brick and every stone a poem

English on one side, Spanish on the other
with every second and seventh in reverse

It will be paid for by the poets

who will be, as they have always been
happy to invest everything they have
in something permanent and impractical

The Two-Headed Calf

Audio Recordings, Cows, Farm, Ranch Life, Relationships / tagged Community, Culture, Diplomacy, Intolerance / May 20, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

In our part of Saskatchewan
the settlers were French or other

Our ranch and farm were of the other
and fences more than wire barbed

Culture, religion, language and more
meant my love of one went nowhere

The birth of a two-headed calf
should have come as no surprise
its mother not wishing to take sides

Pere in Bowling Shoes

Audio Recordings / tagged Athol Murray, Notre Dame, Open Mindedness / May 19, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Ecumenical to the core
neither religion nor dress
had to be all black and white

Plaid shirts went well
with ash from Players Plain
and the soles of bowling shoes
safer than slippery leather
on winter streets or hockey ice

And harder to misplace
with those numbers on the back

Interested in learning more about Pere Athol Murray?
Check out the Pere Murray Legacy Channel on YouTube

Pere’s Rodeo

Audio Recordings / tagged Athol Murray College of Notre Dame, Classics, Education, Learning, Parthenon Frieze, Passion, Teacher / May 18, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Horses racing around the Acropolis
brought Pere's blood to boiling

Students freezing in Lane Hall
heard horses above their heads
from another kind of frieze

Warming blood with history
less expensive than burning coal

Click here to learn more about Lane Hall and Pere Athol Murray from one of his students

Flying Into Rain

Audio Recordings, Farm, Ranch Life, Travel / tagged Agriculture, Gratitude, Spring / May 17, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Mid-May and rain
rivers across airplane window
as we land in Regina Saskatchewan

The crops are all in and no frost so far
an election has just affirmed some sanity
at a time when it grew thin on the ground

Manna drops and keeps on dropping

Hymn books around here should contain
worship and thanks for the three day rain

Saskatchewan Highway 39

Audio Recordings, Travel / May 16, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

If you attended
Notre Dame College in Wilcox
and you hitchhiked down that highway
you knew that 39 was for the miles to Moose Jaw

That it ran another 130 miles south to the US border
was of no great importance, we weren't going that way

Going Pro

Audio Recordings, Ranch Life / tagged Cowboys, Horses, Lessons, Recovery, Resilliance, Riding / May 15, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

At thirteen I was a rodeo pro
cause I was betting paid to ride

A farmer south of Mossbank
had a two-year-old he wanted rode
and I would ride three hours a week

Didn't want a saddle on one so young
so the mare and I would play a game

She would run fast and stop faster
and I would end up on the ground
and get up and on and do it again

Since I am getting paid
by the hour not seconds stayed on
she gets to have her horse-laugh fun
while I polish life-skills of tuck and roll

2 Replies

Scars to Keep You Young

Audio Recordings, Personal Growth, Remembering / tagged Healing, Wounds / May 14, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Fondly fingering
hatchet lines
from cutting kindling
how soft the flesh as seven

Thumb tenderly touches
fingernail and nail reshaped
by the baseball diamond grinder
and I am easy-limbed and ten again

As for those
that do not mark the flesh
in hand each visit... flowers fresh

The Crocus

Audio Recordings, Nature, Ranch Life / tagged Birds, Spring / May 13, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Loud crows and bright robins
promise an early spring

But they are of the sky
and can be easily fooled

Only the crocus knows

Spring Came In

Audio Recordings, Nature / tagged Birds, Flowers, Seasons / May 12, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Spring came in
like a slinky on a stair

Coiling and recoiling
twenty degrees at a leap

The robin looking at the
crocus twice to see if it was real

1 Reply

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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!
Ken Christopher on The Farmer’s DaughterMay 7, 2025
Very nice

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