Neil Meili

Zen Cowboy Poet & Freelance Philosopher

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Tag Archives: Play

Adam and Eve in Joy

Audio Recordings / tagged Eden, Judgement, Play, sensuality / October 4, 2024 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

They had come to the apple grove
(Not a fig tree in sight)
and lay in the grass in the sun

She ran her fingers along his soft scar
and he tickled her tummy
where the belly button wasn’t

And they laughed and laughed and laughed
so long and so loud
that God awoke from his Sunday nap
and you know how he gets when that happens

Old Ranch Physics

Audio Recordings, Farm, Nostalgia, Ranch Life / tagged Childhood, Play, Science / August 4, 2024 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Centrifugal force
is a gopher circling
on a binder twine noose

A cinch breaking
on a quarter-horse turning
and how far from the horse you fall

A quarter spinning
in the big bread-mixing bowl
and the up and down whoosh of the whine

Oh So Simple Then

Audio Recordings, Family, Haiku, Nostalgia, Ranch Life, Remembering / tagged Childhood, Play / June 18, 2024 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Oh so simple then
though the children grew older
their games never did

Author’s mother with her siblings circa 1925

Blue Spruce

Audio Recordings, Family, Ranch Life, Remembering / tagged Birds, Childhood, Play / May 15, 2024 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

It may have been about thirty feet tall
taller when you're small

And on the very top would sit
the great horned owl

If the anti-Christ were to have
and anti-Christmas tree
he could have capped it
as the perfect dark angel

We cowered by the corner of the house
our very blood frozen
prey to his predator eyes

Yet when he flew away
we could snap - as only children can - from fear to play
run to divide the branches
and return once more to the soft-needled floor

One little two little three little Indians in our magic tepee in a land of long ago
and not so far away

With thanks to Al Westnedge for the stunning photograph of the Great Horned Owl.

Cedar-Elm Playscape

Audio Recordings, Haiku, Nature / tagged Play / March 7, 2024 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Cedar-elm playscape
squirrels up across and down
recess all day long

On the Trampoline

Audio Recordings, Relationships / tagged Children, Connection, imagination, Play / June 26, 2023 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Alura and I jump till we’re tired
decide my leg is broken in two places
and rest looking up at yellow butterflies
and squirrels playing in the twinning tree
as fall winds rock it toward a winter’s sleep

The young nurse writes prescriptions
lays on healing hands
sprays medicine from an atomizer pen
a few sharp-stick injections in the arm
and I am well again

Another Indian River memory

Image by Rudy and Peter Skitterians from Pixabay

Squirrels on the Roof

Audio Recordings, Nature / tagged Play / December 2, 2022 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Last night the comforting
drumming of rain on metal roof

This morning the playful pattering
of squirrels chasing squirrels

Wanted a picture to share all this
but they were far too busy to pose

Buffalo Chips

Audio Recordings, Cattle, Cows, Farm, Manure, Nostalgia, Ranch Life / tagged Childhood, Play / October 3, 2022 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Lily pads floating
on the sea of prairie grass

Heat for the tepees
or the homesteader's cabin

Nothing wasted in the West

And every boy knew
that a good sharp stick or a pointy-toed shoe
would let you know
if one was just right, or still a little too new

And I'm here to tell you, that compared to a good dry chip
meeting a West wind's invitation
a Frisbee is a weak and poor, plastic imitation

Blue Spruce

Audio Recordings, Family, Ranch Life, Remembering / tagged Birds, Childhood, Play / July 9, 2022 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

It may have been about thirty feet tall
taller when you're small

And on the very top would sit
the great horned owl
If the anti-Christ were to have a Christmas tree
he could have capped it as the perfect dark angel
We cowered by the corner of the house
our very blood frozen pretty to his predator eyes
Yet when he flew away
we could snap - as only children can
from fear to play
run to divide the branches and return once more to the soft-needled floor
One little two little three little Indians in our magic tepee in a land of long ago and not so far away

1 Reply

Mud

Audio Recordings, Ranch Life, Remembering / tagged Childhood, Play, Spring / May 2, 2022 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

There ain't nothin like mud
for misry and fun
For curse deep
wheel to the axle
and rivers with sticks
and squish tween the toes
and fallen on top of
the one that just fell
and pants stiff to crackn
for you're half the way home
Grown ups are no fun

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Ken Christopher on Never Thought Of It As SolitudeNovember 19, 2024
Very nice!
Ken Christopher on War WoundsNovember 12, 2024
So true, the barbed wire 👍🏼
Niece Karen on Quaking in the AtticOctober 23, 2024
Perfect metaphor - you captured me perfectly!
Ken Christopher on God is Getting OnOctober 22, 2024
Anger contained in love
Murray on Feels of the Farm – FlaxOctober 15, 2024
Now that's vintage knowledge Neil!!!! Hope you're feeling much better. Your poem would suggest you are!!

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