Hello!
I’m Neil Meili, wandering the world in awe; with mirrors of metaphor everywhere, as I observe the beauty of you and me, and nature in its glory – and try to tell the story – from growing up on a ranch to the depths of psychology
You can join me on this journey with a Poem in your Inbox Every Day
Fishing Old Wives Lake is a collection of stories and reflections, told through poetry, about growing up on a ranch in the 40s, 50s and 60s and Neil’s wanderings to the present day. It explores relationships with nature, family, friends and neighbors with some nostalgia, a little insight, and a healthy dose of cowboy humor.
Whether this is a trip back to your own childhood or to a place you’ve never been this book will surround you with the sights, sounds, tastes and smells of life on the ranch, connecting you with that pace of life and place in time.
Contact us to purchase your copy.
Ebook and Large Print Editions coming soon.
Fishing Old Wives Lake is published by Blue Accordion Press
ISBN: 978-1-9994330-0-0 Published August 1, 2018
288pg CAN $19.99
FIELD OF VISION
Paranoid farmer
deep in the gold of a sunflower field
morning and evening aware that he is being watched
Narcissist son by his side basking in the glow
DOING THE WORK
Dark nights of the soul may come again
This time I will have more candles
A LONG WAY FROM TOWN
This summer
I will go back to the farm
turn out the yard lights
in the dark of the moon
and look up in four-year-old awe
with a smile
the Milky Way will remember
OFF TO SCHOOL
They sent me off to school today
round-roofed lunchpail packed
with all five stages of grief
Four layer sandwich of
denial
anger
bargaining
and depression
and an apple of acceptance
I don’t think I’ll eat the apple
WHAT YOU MISSED BY NOT GOING
TO A ONE ROOM SCHOOL
Your dad’s initials
jackknifed deep in a desk now yours
The worst teacher in the world
all day every long day for three years
The best teacher in the world
all day every short day for the next one
Watching other kids get the strap
being watched by them when you got it
Beating the big kids in the spelling bee
taking a beating at recess for your trouble
Melting crayons on the tin protector
three feet from the coal stove burn
Home-grown tomatoes sogging
through home-baked bread
Clapping blackboard brushes
upwind of the cough-filled cloud
Green Dust-Bane and a barn broom
pushed across an oiled wood floor
All your enemies, all your friends
no more than twenty feet away
CAN’T TAKE THE FARM OUT OF THE BOY
What I learned
of poetry from my father
is that the tractor sings
at just this RPM
SETTING A GOOD EXAMPLE
The farmer prays for rain
and goes right back to work
he seeds the seeds
and he weeds the weeds
and oats his horse if he has one
but as summer goes by
he may scan the sky
with the boils and the patience of Job
and mutter
as Job might have muttered
while trying to set a good example for God
HORIZONS AREN’T EQUAL OUT HERE
The East is fine
for color on the way to the barn
but by the time the chores are done it’s gone
The rest of the day we watch the West
That’s where the weather comes from
That’s the direction the grandfathers faced
when they got this far and found
what they were looking for
or gave up
unhitched the horses
and sat down to watch the sun set