Cowboy Poetry – Neil Meili

Neil Meili

Zen Cowboy Poet & Freelance Philosopher

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Category: Cowboy Poetry

Word Divisions

Audio Recordings, Cowboy Poetry, Pilots, Poems about Poetry, Relationships / tagged Communication, Connection, Optimism / October 1, 2026 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

You can know your native language
and still feel all alone
as pilots talk to pilots
in a code that's all their own

Yet not even one to one
can they share that love of air
or touch the other's feelings
of the fear and beauty there

Sailors talk to sailors
of wind and sail and rope
of nights upon the ocean
of courage and of hope

Yet the words just can't convey
their love of sea and air
nor touch the other's feelings
of the fear and beauty there

And though cowboys talk to cowboys
in a special kind of drawl
there's still a space between them
the words can't tell at all

Not those nights of cold and stars
with coyotes on the air
nor the call of open spaces
with the fear and beauty there

Watch as lovers talk to lovers
in ways only two can share
as they build between them
a framework light and fair

While a web that's spun of maybes
hangs so fragile in the air
that one false word can shatter
into pain, the beauty there

And yet

There are still some crazy poets
out riding hatless in the sun
still trying to do the very thing
we all know can't be done

Still Quioting for a language
that can speak to everyone

1 Reply

My Uncle Shot My Dog

Audio Recordings, Cowboy Poetry, Family, Farm, Ranch Life, Relationships / tagged Blame, Childhood, Death, Forgiveness, Grief, pets / September 27, 2026 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

My uncle shot my dog

My ever loving ever loyal saved me from the coyotes
Went back to the ranch to lead my parents to me
stuck in the mud - just like in the movies - Lassie dog

My uncle shot my dog

Maybe she had took to bitin' people
if she did I'm sure they had it coming

Maybe she'd got to eatin' the chickens
if she did she'd earned every one

Maybe she was old and sick and hurtin'
maybe she was better off dead than alive

I don't remember anyone saying that
but I doubt it would've helped
Not when it's your best friend - and you're five

My uncle shot my dog

My uncle shot my dog
and went to his grave unforgiven
Maybe I can get it done before I go to mine

2 Replies

Pincher Creek Alberta

Audio Recordings, Cattle, Cowboy Poetry, Cows, Farm, Nature, Poems about Poetry, Ranch Life, Remembering / tagged Community, Gathering, Sharing / September 4, 2026 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Mid June and Cowboy Poets back in town
voices hoarse from long winter's silence

And a thousand and more are here to hear
for the poets have been listening all year

Listening to the cattle and the coyotes
and the Northern Lights at nights

And they have been reminded
and being reminded they remember
and remembering they come here to remind

And just listening we remember
and unwind

Looking forward to the Trails End Gathering in High River this year

Cowboy Poetry

Audio Recordings, Cattle, Cowboy Poetry, Cows, Farm, Ranch Life, Remembering / September 3, 2026 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

This is not the poetry of pulling calves
in a cold wind and a foot or so of spring snow
with only a vest and a bottle of rye
to keep you dry

This
is the poetry
of that calf that would have died
standing on shaky legs
to drink warm milk
from the cow that would have died

1 Reply

Kenny and Me

Audio Recordings, Cowboy Poetry, Family, Ranch Life, Relationships / May 14, 2026 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

(or Ranching at Eighteen)

Together we were young
and strong and very bold
and together we could drink
more beer than we could hold

We could drive home late and fast
singing every Johnny Horton song
Then fall asleep for minutes
and still answer the morning gong

We would work it out in the hot hot sun
(so easy then did the poisons yield) As we sweated bales with pitch forks
and passed gas
in a thousand acre field

Motherin Up

Audio Recordings, Cowboy Poetry, Cows, Relationships / tagged Survival / May 10, 2026 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

The Farm, The Ranch and the Sweeping Scythe

Audio Recordings, Cowboy Poetry, Farm, Nature, Ranch Life / tagged Death / March 13, 2026 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Sunrise can be brilly bright
and all day long
everything out to get you

The horse can kick or fall
the bull has horns of steel

Every machine is grinding its teeth
in wait for a chance to bite

and every snowstorm
eager to find you
too far from the barn
and stiffen you like the manure-pile cat

The sunsets worth surviving for

Cowversations

Audio Recordings, Cattle, Cowboy Poetry, Cows, Farm, Ranch Life / tagged Communication, Humor / November 21, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

One of the reasons I got out of ranching
was the long drought of good conversation

Cowhands
true to their fame are men of few words

Horses ain't bad
they will at least point their ears and pretend

But cows, it was the cows that did it
how they'd saucer eye like listening
while you chewed them out in detail
about all the dumb things that they'd done

Turn away to ruminate upon the lesson
and two days later kick you for no reason

Dances with Horses

Audio Recordings, Cowboy Poetry, Family, Farm, Ranch Life / tagged Horses / November 19, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

And what is the poem of Rusty
who slips at full gallop and picks up all four feet
and sets them down sure on the next dry spot

Of Lady so afraid of wire
she can buck fourteen hours tired
if a four inch chunk should strike a hoof

And the dance of the wild mare ikn the corral
who kicks and one foot goes by on each side of your head

And of the cold separated from mother's flank
by a gunny sack in the face and a quick gate
who turns a tight arc and comes back at you, and you see it in the eyes and duch and he sails over
taking out the top rail

And you hear that your father gave you
the first compliment you've ever hear of
by turning to the man beside him and saying

"The damned fool will get himself killed someday"

Poets, Pilots & Cowboys

Audio Recordings, Cowboy Poetry, Flight, Pilots, Poems about Poetry, Ranch Life / July 24, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

A poet will try to dissect the world
and he'll try to show you each part
and he'll write it all down with a pen
that he's dipped in an old carin' heart

While pilots hae the eyes of a hawk
and a strut in the way that they walk
and they give all that's in them to give
and they live every moment they live

And most cowboys are gentle not loud
and they're not all that good in a crowd
and they talk like they're about half asleep
but what they know boys and girls
they know deep

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Anonymous on FallingOctober 4, 2026
Beautiful
Sandi Hebley on Word DivisionsOctober 1, 2026
Thank you, crazy poet!
Sandi Hebley on Qu’Appelle and ESLSeptember 29, 2026
😢😢😢
Sandi Hebley on OutdigenousSeptember 28, 2026
Wow!
Sandi Hebley on My Uncle Shot My DogSeptember 27, 2026
😢😢🤗

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