Personal Growth – Page 15 – Neil Meili

Neil Meili

Zen Cowboy Poet & Freelance Philosopher

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Category: Personal Growth

Masks

Personal Growth / tagged Halloween / October 31, 2019 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Jack o lanterns
scowl or smile

Beliefs
deep carved
within their style
never change
through all the night

Impervious to children’s fun
or costumes of the frightest fright

Perspective

Personal Growth, String Too Short To Save / October 30, 2019 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Objects in the mirror
are closer than they appear

Subjects in the windshield
can also fool you dear

Photo by Drew Farwell on Unsplash

I Shaman

Personal Growth / tagged Healing, Potential / September 23, 2019 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Once again I touch
and pull back from my Shaman self
The thinning veil becomes
once again a curtain and a wall

And what if the wall should fall

Could I face the demands
people might place on me for their healing
– the responsibility for my own
Could I resist using powers for personal gain
breaking the balls of traitorous pals
or poking pins in political dolls

Perhaps I will think about this again tomorrow
for as Scarlet says “Tomorrow is another day”

And tomorrow is Tuesday
and tonight is Monday Night Football

Shaman’s Stick

Audio Recordings, Personal Growth / tagged Healing, Spirituality / September 22, 2019 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

When dead Shamans spirits
pick a new Shaman to carry the stick
they always start by making them sick

In every tribe in the natural world
they whisper and press the same old trick
you’re gonna be sick till you pick up the stick
you’re gonna be sick till you pick up the stick

Pick up the stick or your relative’s dead
pick up the stick or you stay in your bed
you’re gonna be sick till you pick up the stick
you’re gonna be sick till you pick up the stick

Life won’t be easy if you pick up the stick
life won’t be easy if you lay down the stick

You can’t teach a dead Shaman any new trick
so most times it pays to just pick up the stick
you’re gonna be sick till you pick up the stick
you heal the sick when you pick up the stick

Sacred Dance

Audio Recordings, Personal Growth, Uncategorized / tagged Africa, Healing / September 21, 2019 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

The Bushmen of the Kalahari
dance all night in a circle
dance a calf-deep trench in the sand

In a circle around the circle
sit those in need of a healing

And because it is a sacred dance
any dancer at any time may step
out of the dance and do the healing
and then return to the dance again

Knowing without knowing
that everyone is a healer sometimes
everyone needs a healing sometimes

You just keep dancing

Image by kolibri5 from Pixabay

Play

Personal Growth / tagged Depression, Joy, Mid-Life Crisis, serendipity / September 18, 2019 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Halfway through our life’s journey
I woke to find myself within a dark wood
- Dante Alighieri The Divine Comedy

Heavy of body and soul
things to do and things undone

Head down and plod of foot
the sands of Santa Monica
at the age of Dante in his dive

What’s this beyond the foam
five dolphins parallel in play

I walk, they pace my pace
I turn they turn with my return

Complete the mile to coax a smile
seven layers Dante upside down

Growing Into It

Audio Recordings, Nostalgia, Personal Growth / August 25, 2019 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Remember all those hand-me-ups
all at least two sizes too big
mother bought for you

You look like a clown but don’t dare frown
it’s frugal and wise so don’t roll your eyes

“Be careful, be careful please”
but you’re all elbows and knees

Before they half fit they all look like shit
so it’s back to the store to try it once more
and your behind is behind two sizes again

Childhood patterns are hard to break

Growing out of school, marriage, and every
job I’ve ever had before I really got it
before I was even big enough to fit

Velcro 2

Personal Growth, Relationships / August 10, 2019 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Velcro has two sides
and will not stick to shine

A bully walks by
I react like the past is true
while nothing seems to stick to you

Authority with a scowl
withers you to weak knee give
while others smile and let them live

Velcro has two sides
sometimes a loop sometimes a hook

If it sticks and pulls it’s time to look

The Inner Critic

Audio Recordings, Personal Growth, Relationships / tagged Psychology / August 3, 2019 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Poor little Keystone Cop
(although often not so funny)
leaping from shoulder to shoulder
trying so hard to keep us safe
Yelling or whispering in each ear
the old rules based on fear

Telling us
what we should have done
and what we should never do
enforcing rules learned long ago
that may no longer be true

The voice of your mother still
nags when your room’s not neat
The voice of your father
still wants you up at dawn
Your teacher and your coach
Your country and your culture
Your parents and your younger selves
with messages to keep you safe

The cop only knows
what he used to know
and still does what he was told to do
You don’t have to destroy him
or shove him out the door

Just put your arm around him
and tell him
you’re no longer four

The Car of Joy

Personal Growth / July 13, 2019 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

The car of joy
runs on wheels
of completed grief

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Tom on Basketball in CanadaApril 18, 2025
Neil, as you may know we live about 15 miles from his former farm. The locals have installed a bronze…
Ken Christopher on Hockey Night in CanadaApril 17, 2025
Good one, it’s still goin on
Ken Christopher on ShitstormApril 4, 2025
My former comment had an error, should have read: Great poem Neil, has some slippery elements that mix it up…
Kenneth on Walden PondApril 3, 2025
Siblants interlapping with interference waves construct this delightful hologram of spring: well done my friend
Ken Christopher on Minutia in MarchApril 1, 2025
21 beats, 4 past hyku, (sp); perhaps a new form. Beautiful poem

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