Neil Meili

Zen Cowboy Poet & Freelance Philosopher

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Tag Archives: Language

Poetry at Bergen

Audio Recordings, Poems about Poetry, Travel / tagged Language / March 1, 2024 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

If Austin is the Athens of America
Bergen is the Austin of Holland

Sunday afternoon
reading in seven languages

Feeling the difference

Harsh precision of the Dutch
If you could understand the
language
you would understand the poem

Russian
The power of
a shot of cold vodka
and survival on the steppes

Afrikaans
Dutch rubbed smooth
by the soft hills of Africa

Latin
Still the mother of language
singing through her children

Spanish
Music of Lorca
moving your body as you listen

French
Dark musings of Rimbaud
a shrug in every verb

English
The fish does not see water
but there was food everywhere

A Poem in Search of a Verb

Audio Recordings, Poems about Poetry / tagged Anger, Communication, Impact, Language / February 17, 2024 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

A verb like zischeln
German for: to whisper angrily

A verb to punch above its weight
A poem to know you
right out of the left side of the bed

Why Not the Beautiful Words

Audio Recordings, Poems about Poetry / tagged Childhood, Delight, Language, Whimsy / December 6, 2023 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Why don't use just the beautiful words
Why not cast out a net and bring
back only those that sing

Why would we use the English for butterfly
doesn't that sound like a dairy related event

Why use the German schmetterling
doesn't that have a schledhammer ring

Wouldn't Italian farfalla, Spanish mariposa or the Portuguese borboleta be betta

Why not the tres French papillon
does it not taste on the tongue to you
like air and nectar and dew

Why don't we save bats for hitting balls
and for insulation for our house
would it not be much more fitting
to flit with the fledermaus

Are there not a thousand languages or more
do they not all hold jewels in their core

Why not let the children choose

Are their hearts not our purest tuning forks
are they not ourselves more clear
do they not still resonate with all
they speak and feel and hear

Outdigenous

Audio Recordings / tagged Aboriginal, Colonialism, Extinction, First Nations, Indian, Language, Loss, Native / September 27, 2023 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

A dog is not a dog
in languages where it is
a wolf and no man's friend

Every language has, or had
words that do not translate to others

Seven hundred languages in Australia
before English discovered them to death

How many in the Americas, many to few
their words for mourning not here for this poem

Aboriginal pictograph, Kakadu National Park, Arnhem Land, Australia

Poetry at Bergen

Audio Recordings, Poems about Poetry, Travel / tagged Language / February 21, 2019 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

If Austin is the Athens of America
Bergen is the Austin of Holland

Sunday afternoon
reading in seven languages

Feeling the difference

Harsh precision of the Dutch
If you could understand the
language
you would understand the poem

Russian
The power of
a shot of cold vodka
and survival on the steppes
Afrikaans
Dutch rubbed smooth
by the soft hills of Africa

Latin
Still the mother of language
singing through her children

Spanish
Music of Lorca
moving your body as you listen

French
Dark musings of Rimbaud
a shrug in every verb

English
The fish does not see water
but there was food everywhere

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Gail on In-TuitionJanuary 2, 2025
Love it! “The cost of this is only in the not.”
Ken Christopher on Missing the MysteryDecember 30, 2024
Yes, the Mystery is what keeps it exciting
Ken Christopher on Christmas CardsDecember 29, 2024
Yep, the sleigh got us to town on train day and me to school every day, the poem is a…
Anonymous on Why Children Are ChristmasDecember 23, 2024
So simple, so captivating! Nice Neil to give me the feel :) Murray A
Ken Christopher on John DeereDecember 21, 2024
Love it❤️

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