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Category: Cowboy Poetry

Prairie Chicken

Audio Recordings, Cowboy Poetry, Nature, Ranch Life / tagged Birds, Survival / April 5, 2019 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

I came up through the valley where the homesteaders had tried to make a go of it for a few years, past the tin cans and other evidence of their short stay trying to rust itself back into the ground. Up over the crest of the hill where the Indians had lived for centuries with no more evidence than the weathered rocks of tepee rings

It was spring and I stumbled upon what they may have seen for
centuries, the mating ceremony of about twenty five or thirty grouse. They didn’t see or hear me and I stopped about ten yards away and watched (although my mother might not have thought it proper)

The hens ran around, heads down and tails up in unbashful invitation while the cocks puffed up the air bags in their chests and drummed their challenge

They looked handsome and brave in their posturing and beckoning and their readiness for reckoning and the fights were on, straight on and straight up with spurs and feathers flying

It was vicious but pure
Not a cockfight for the amusement of the bloody-minded, but a way to see that only the strongest would sire the little broods that would have to survive the hawks, and the snakes, and the weather; and all the dangers of a land where it takes a great deal of courage
– just to be a chicken

Swearing Off

Audio Recordings, Cowboy Poetry, Farm, Ranch Life, Relationships / April 4, 2019 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

The 2019 Austin International Poetry Festival starts today! A warm welcome to all the incoming presenters and participants. This year Cowboy Poetry is making its debut at the festival with workshops by John Legacy and Steve Brooks on Saturday April 6th at the Learning Center at the Holiday Inn Midtown in Austin. Check www.AIPF.org for details.

The story was told by my old friend Bill
about a time when he was four
well maybe a little less, maybe a little more

Seems he’d been rubbin’ up against some boys in town
and learned some language that made his momma frown
His folks tried about everything from soap on down
but the lessons they were pouring in just didn’t stay down

Finally they said, now Billy my boy
the decision we’re makin’ gives us no joy
Because generally we like you, and you’re pretty good with your chores
but there’s no room on this ranch for language like yours

So, though it’s sure to make us grieve
we’ve packed your bag, and you’ll have to leave
They peeked through the curtains as he walked down the lane
with Dad remindin’ Mom that some lessons have pain

Billy stood at the road for 20 minutes or more
then slowly trudged back and knocked on the door
They slipped from the window and opened it slow
he said

“where in the hell am I supposed to go?”

2 Replies

Motherin Up

Audio Recordings, Cattle, Cowboy Poetry, Cows, Ranch Life, Relationships / tagged Rebound / April 1, 2019 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Sometimes you loose a cow
sometimes you loose a calf
you wrap the orphan in the dead calf's skin and the mother takes her in like kin
gold enough there for a country song it's a hurting song - you can sing along about true love died and true love gone and fooling yourself just long enough to keep on keeping on

This year the Austin International Poetry Festival is offering Cowboy Poetry workshops featuring John Legacy and Steve Brooks, hosted by Neil Meili and Connie Lane Williams – Workshops are Saturday April 6 at 9am and 11am – at the Learning Center – Holiday Inn Midtown, Austin. Visit www.aipf.org for more details

Why the Long Face?

Cowboy Poetry, Relationships / tagged Horses / March 19, 2019 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

I'm sorry old hoss
I've forgotten your name
it's one of my failings I fate

But let's ride on a while
cause I sure like your style
and I never forget a gait

1 Reply

Herefords

Audio Recordings, Cattle, Cowboy Poetry, Nature, Ranch Life / March 10, 2019 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

They’re not as storied as the Texas longhorn
nor as hairy as the Highland creed

And they’re not nearly so sophisticated
as the latest European breed

They sure don’t calf out as easy as Angus
but all around, they’re all you need

(and they’re pretty too)

I remember
few things as beautiful
as looking back from the point
and seeing a few hundred Herefords
pouring through a cleft in the hills
down to the home corrals
like a spring flood
red as earth and blood

Rolling with white-faced foam

2 Replies

Yoga Day

Cowboy Poetry / tagged Austin / February 23, 2019 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

I don’t have a yoga poem (at least not yet) but National Yoga Day yesterday brought to mind Steve Brooks’ marvellous ballad Yoga Lady; the story of a cowboy falling for a pretty yogi because, “She did things with her own body he could not do with a rope”. You can find the song on his Chasing Grace album, on SteveBrooks.net, and you can listen to it right here.

Steve will be a feature at the Austin International Poetry Festival this April. Check AIPF.org for the full line-up

1 Reply

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Sandi Hebley on How Fallen AngelsAugust 17, 2025
Indeed!
Nancy Fierstien on Unremember ThatAugust 16, 2025
Gonna be inclined to share this one at my Poets' Tea reading tomorrow afternoon. Thanks, Neil!
Sandi Hebley on Memory Lane JoggingAugust 5, 2025
Lovely!
Sandi Hebley on Dad and Death at WarAugust 4, 2025
😢
Sandi Hebley on One for the AuntiesAugust 3, 2025
Wow!

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Neil Meili

Zen Cowboy Poet & Freelance Philosopher

Category: Cowboy Poetry

Prairie Chicken

Swearing Off

Motherin Up

Why the Long Face?

Herefords

Yoga Day

The Old Dry Guy and the Bath

Winter in the Barn

Christmas Cards

Dances with Horses