Neil Meili

Zen Cowboy Poet & Freelance Philosopher

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Tag Archives: Gratitude

All They Survey

Audio Recordings, Cattle, Cows, Farm, Ranch Life / tagged Appreciation, Gratitude, Pride / December 17, 2024 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

My father
would stand for hours
just looking at his cows

Like God leaning
on a rail fence in heaven
pleased with his creation

1 Reply

Sitting by the Pool

Audio Recordings, Personal Growth / tagged Appreciation, Gratitude, Serenity / December 16, 2024 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Today I didn't go jogging
or send a check to any needy cause
do anything much to my teeth or hair
that the product sellers said I should

or any of the million things
I'm told I need to do to be a better me

There is a man
in the high mountains of India
who sits beside a waterfall all day
and says to God:

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful
good work, good work, good work

I had a few moments of that

The Dead Are Good Tippers

Audio Recordings / tagged Care, Death, Gratitude / May 19, 2024 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

The hospice nurse
may change the bed
and think the dead are dead

Hurry home to feed the kids
and mend the things to mend

But if they feel a debt doth pend
she'll find out in the end

Deer Gone

Audio Recordings, Ranch Life / tagged Alcohol, Death, Disconnection, Extinction, First Nations, Gratitude, Guns, Hunting, Ignorance / January 29, 2024 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

A tough shot, 600 yards at least, running
left to right in the open sights of the 303
Aim to the top of the third jump ahead, move
the gun in a smooth arc and squeeze slow

It was a kill
I saw it as great skill
a source of blood-fed pride
and the deer… well it just died

The first nations used to see it as a kind of
revolving door, the spirit of the animal would
come back soon enough in another body if you used
the one he had given up to you with gratitude

There are not many deer in these parts anymore
Wonder if they’re trapped waiting for gratitude
the natives lost in Fort Whoop-Up whiskey

and we never knew

How Not To Be A Turkey On Thanksgiving Day

Audio Recordings, Personal Growth / tagged Gratitude, Thanksgiving / November 23, 2023 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

How do you get to Carnegie Hall
Practice Practice Practice

So sip each morn
and even on plentitude

And on the day of gratitude
show up less loud and crude

Thanksgiving Poem: How-to

Audio Recordings, Nature, Poems about Poetry / tagged Art & Artists, Autumn, Fall, Gratitude, Holiday, Thanksgiving / October 9, 2023 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Don’t write right away, but soon.
Watch the leaves and the light fully
Connect – allow – relax – delight.
Too quick is a tourist in a selfie,
Taj Mahal untended over left shoulder.
Wait too long and the phone will ring

Write a few hundred poems before – good and bad,
so fear of the water doesn’t keep you on shore
And how about a title throwing two shadows
(as Mary Oliver encourages)
an easy one here with movement and the season

Do not say leaves look toward the sun, an object,
but towards the rising of the sun, an event
one more evocative of motion

Note the angle of the sun,
so low on the horizon that is shines upwards
into the twisting, twirling, falling leaves,
as they lift at times in slightly gusting breeze

If pirouetting is what you see, bring the ballet in

And gratitude, of course, and on what day

Bemused

Audio Recordings, Poems about Poetry, Travel / tagged Art & Artists, Gratitude / September 17, 2023 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

It is never wise to be
at all ungrateful to your muse

Though times she picks to bring her gifts
are ones few of us would choose

She does live on a mountain in Greece
while I'm scribbling in Texas at two AM
She's bright and alert and off to work
because it's nine in the morning to her

Long Hot Saskatchewan Summer Haiku 8

Audio Recordings, Farm, Haiku, Nature, Ranch Life / tagged Gratitude, Nourishment, Pride, Relief / July 29, 2023 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Okay Now – Mostly

Audio Recordings, Relationships / tagged Friendship, Gratitude, Grief, Loss, Mourning, Sadness / June 7, 2023 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

I think I'm okay now
when with every thought of you

Gratitude for the years
gets there before the tears

Mostly

Dove lupine in Sharon’s San Marcos garden

Morning Gratitudes

Audio Recordings, Nature / tagged Beauty, Gratitude, Snow, Winter / February 4, 2023 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

After my morning gratitudes
look out the window
to great flakes
softling to the ground

Always room for one more

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Ken Christopher on Buddy TrainingFebruary 19, 2025
Yep, tough love
Kimberly Heinrich on Dog YearsFebruary 18, 2025
You could not possibly have known that today was the day that I had to have my beloved dog euthanized.…
Barbara Joy Bruce on FebruaryFebruary 13, 2025
love it! Thanks, Neil!
Ken Christopher on Ancestry . BarnFebruary 7, 2025
You bet; nice one Neil
Barb on Her Mother Sings to VioletsFebruary 2, 2025
💜💓💜

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