Author Archives: neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

New Book – Hot Off the Press

Uncategorized / / by

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

WHAT YOU MISSED BY NOT GOING TO A ONE ROOM SCHOOL

Nostalgia, Ranch Life, Relationships / / by

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

SETTING A GOOD EXAMPLE

Farm / / by

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

Farm, Ranch Life / / by

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

GOOD ADVICE

Cowboy Poetry / / by

GOOD ADVICE

Whenever anything got broke or lost
Kim’s mother would always say
Don’t cry over anything that can’t cry over you

Which is a good thing to remember
when your life becomes a country song
and your dog
and your wife and your truck are gone

Your dog will miss you right away
and cry with the coyotes all the night
your wife will miss you later – maybe
and cry for all the coulda’s that might

but you’re sadly mistaken
if you think that old C-10 Chevy
following the repo truck down the lane
is going to miss you half as much as you miss it