October 2023 – Page 3 – Neil Meili

Neil Meili

Zen Cowboy Poet & Freelance Philosopher

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Monthly Archives: October 2023

A Mary Oliver Question

Audio Recordings, Poems about Poetry / October 11, 2023 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

You don't want to hear the story of my life, and anyway I don't want to tell it.
Mary Oliver - Dogfish

Mary Oliver writes poems that are not about her

In the poems there are
black bears and wild geese
and dogfish and starfish and sharks
and even a few clams

There are herons and owls
red-tailed hawks, black snakes
and fawns and does and dogs

The black bears and wild geese
the alligators and the sunflowers
and even the cracked walls say

"These poems are not about us either"
I have to ask - are they about you?

Druthers

Audio Recordings, Poems about Poetry / October 10, 2023 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

I prefer the absurdity of writing poems to the absurdity of not writing poems - Wislawa Szymborska

I prefer reading her poems
to her not having written them
and almost everyone else's too

As for my own
the lame, and the lovely
I prefer with her
and leave the vote to you

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

Peace Park

Audio Recordings / tagged Fear, Hope, Iran, Israel, Palestine, Prayer, Putin, War / October 8, 2023 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Neil and Dorsey at the International Peace Park, October 7, 2023

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterton-Glacier_International_Peace_Park

Cousin Wayne

Audio Recordings, Family, Relationships / tagged Alcohol, Regret / October 7, 2023 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

When Wayne was thirteen
he had the finest blondest hair
the finest features and the finest mind
of all the cousins round

A city boy and cooler about everything than us
until we took him hunting

When his first shot hit the rabbit
he ran and cried and held it till it died

At eighteen he quit school with A grades
a month before graduation to get a jump on a job
met a girl and bragged of achievement on first date

Over achievement it turned out to be
quick marriage, quick, two children, three

Army for security, liquor for the pain
it was twenty years before I saw him again

He was in a downstairs bar
sitting there as coarse and thick as adobe brick

I wanted to roll it all back
reach in for the lost fineness and yank it all inside out

And hold him like the rabbit when he cried
still innocent when it died

1 Reply

Cousins Round the Campfire

Audio Recordings, Family, Nostalgia, Ranch Life, Relationships / October 6, 2023 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Green twig pals by blaze
one will bend up one bend down
one will tell the town

Author age 12 with cousins Wayne and Lyle

Bridges and Other Kindling

Audio Recordings, Nostalgia, Remembering / tagged memories / October 5, 2023 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

You can't sit in front
of the same campfire twice
as much as you think of how nice

You can't be as young
as you were when you clinked
those glasses in front of the hearth

But just think if you hadn't
what would keep you warm in the storm

Why You Can and Can’t Go Home Again

Audio Recordings, Nostalgia / October 4, 2023 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Because everything there is compare
only what isn't can remain the same
and the girl from away is still sixteen

Courval, Saskatchewan – circa 1960

Age and Balance

Audio Recordings, Personal Growth / October 3, 2023 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Above the chasm
balancing on the rope of hope
At either end of the balance pole
loss-acceptance
wounds-healing
folly-wisdom
tragedy-compassion
will keep you step by step from falling
though not the rope from breaking

Between a Rock and Becoming One

Audio Recordings, News, Personal Growth / tagged Forgiveness, Genocide, Survival, Terror / October 2, 2023 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

A survivor of the Rwandan genocide
whose family did not escape it with him
says you become what you cannot forgive

In these days of new of worlds of woe
we can add a thousand a day to not forgive

Like that man made wise by pain
can we avoid the plaster setting firm
like him find a way to forgive and live again

1 Reply

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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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