Farm – Neil Meili

Neil Meili

Zen Cowboy Poet & Freelance Philosopher

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Category: Farm

Storm Windows on the Prairie

Audio Recordings, Farm, Ranch Life / tagged Preparation, Seasons, Winter / October 14, 2026 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Put them up too early
and all the air you get till spring
is three small holes under the wing

and that hot stove hopping
for the threshing crew
will have them cooking like the stew

Put them up too late
and an early blizzard dumping deep
freezes us all in our sleep

Touch

Audio Recordings, Farm, Ranch Life / tagged Animals, Connection, Technology / October 10, 2026 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

If people didn't need petting zoos
there wouldn't be any

In the parking lot
the metal waits to take them back

Farm and Ranch Nowadays

Audio Recordings, Farm, Nostalgia, Ranch Life / October 9, 2026 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Tractors keep getting bigger
combines and chemicals too

Ranching a hundred years
a horse a saddle and a rope

Author’s Uncle Arnold on Wallis tractor, Saskatchewan 1928

Combining Before Cabs

Audio Recordings, Farm, Haiku, Ranch Life, Remembering / tagged Alcohol, Grain, Harvest / October 8, 2026 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Chaff itch down your neck
and a cold beer in your hand
great barley circle

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

What Grows on the Farm

Audio Recordings, Farm, Personal Growth, Ranch Life, Travel / tagged Change, Home, Observation / September 26, 2026 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

That one could
live here all their lives
and know nothing, or know everything

That one could
leave here and come bacl
and see everything, or see nothing

And after the harvest it would all be the same

Swathing

Audio Recordings, Farm, Ranch Life / tagged Grain, Harvest, Pride, Wheat / September 25, 2026 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Turning for home at dusk
he takes a moment to look back in pride
at the last perfect swath among the perfect swaths

Lines straight as Protestant prayer
overlapping and gold as Burnhilda's braids
floating on firm stubble cut at perfect length
to allow the prairie winds to blow above below
and dry the kernels in the holding heads
to Number 1 Northern, best wheat in the world

Tonight, once more he'll fall to sleep
counting loaves of bread instead of sheep

Wheat

Audio Recordings, Farm, Ranch Life / tagged Baking, Bread, Communion, Harvest, Nourishment / September 24, 2026 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

What perfect voice will sing the thruths of wheat? - Frederico Lorca

What half-ripe for chewing gum

Wheat for rolling waves in wind
Wheat for loaves and fishes giving

Wheat for shoveling wheat all day
and eating earned fresh from oven

Wheat for Jesus body sharing
with your brethren in the pews

Wheat for only rain is news

Ode to Ode to Autumn

Audio Recordings, Farm, Poems about Poetry, Ranch Life / tagged Autumn, Early Death, Fall, Harvest, Seasons / September 23, 2026 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Well John Keats
you nailed that one good
... to load and bless
with fruit the vines that
round the thatch-eves run

A continent away
I drive through fields
of swath-striped gold
and thing of you at 24
but two years from being
harvested while still green

Back to Saskatchewan

Audio Recordings, Farm, Ranch Life, Travel / tagged Country, Plains, Prairie / September 17, 2026 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

After mountains piled on mountains
trees crowding trees and
sense-sating cities

a cleansing fast of horizon

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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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