Farm – Neil Meili

Neil Meili

Zen Cowboy Poet & Freelance Philosopher

Skip to content

Home
Contact
Neil’s Books
Poems
Kind Words
A Neil a Day Poems

Category: Farm

Courage Down the Well

Audio Recordings, Farm, Ranch Life / tagged Tenacity / January 27, 2023 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Arthur Fisher for example
who sold the ranch to Dad
and gave me my first name
and a lake-stone ring he’d made

All alone in
the twenties dug a well by the house
lowering himself into a dark dirt shaft
that could cave him dead at any second

100 feet down, an inch at a time
and how did he get the heavy bucket up

How did he feel when he hit the capstone
picked up the pickaxe and the shovel
moved a hundred feet and started again

The Silence of Sleighs

Audio Recordings, Environment, Farm, Nostalgia, Ranch Life, Remembering, Travel / January 8, 2023 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

My earliest memories do not have a sound track

The steppes of Canada are the steppes of Russia
Zhivago watching Lara leave ... without her song

The horse’s hooves
compressing snow to greater silence
the runners sinking softly into silence
skimming surface of silence
stretching out the notes of silence

The bells on the horse . . . . . . were there bells

Watched Dr. Zhivago last night with family

The Innocence of Snow

Audio Recordings, Cattle, Cows, Family, Farm, Nature, News, Nostalgia, Ranch Life, Remembering / January 2, 2023 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Winter
was winter
and all the world

When the only light was lamp
and the only power God
and the innocence of snow
lay soft on lad and land

When floating breath of kin and kine
was pure and white as well
and mankind too as far as we could tell

Antennae daily now
break down that door with news of war

Winter on the ranch
Kin = Family & Kine = Cattle

Christmas Cards

Audio Recordings, Farm, Nostalgia, Ranch Life, Remembering, Travel / December 24, 2022 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Back when mail was mail
and jam came in a pail
(with strawberries big as your thumb)
the thing I most remember
are the envelopes of December

It didn't surprise us
that Santa came by sleigh
anybody to get to our ranch
would have had to come by sleigh

so they came by card instead
and helped us light each clip-on candle
around the popcorned tree

Only One Boss in the Corral

Audio Recordings, Cattle, Cows, Farm, Ranch Life / November 26, 2022 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

If you're in the corral at roundup time
you better be ready to think or listen fast

When half a ton of fear-blind beef
has a horn lined up with your ass
and the boss says jump you jump

Democracy is a thing of beauty
but there’s a time and a place for that

For Mary Who Loves Horses

Audio Recordings, Cattle, Cows, Farm, Ranch Life, Relationships / tagged Boundries / November 22, 2022 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

I have ridden the fence line
without believing in fences

I have been one with the movement of horse
the strength and speed of horse
the grace of horse and the soul of horse

I have been one with the wind
and the high rolling hills
and the sky

I have stepped down
with my hands filled with staples and pliers

For the welfare of cattle and neighbours
who still have need of believing
in fences

Herding Poems

Audio Recordings, Cattle, Cows, Family, Farm, Poems about Poetry, Ranch Life / November 19, 2022 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Herding Poems
(for Patricia)

My father had sons
to help him herd the cows

I have a daughter
to help me herd the poems

He had ten thousand acres
we have all the acres of the world

His won ribbons at the feeder show
ours, when entered, won some prizes too

He would stand for hours
to watch them feeding and grown fat

I sometimes get out a book and do just that

All They Survey

Audio Recordings, Cattle, Cows, Family, Farm, Ranch Life / tagged Appreciation, Pride / November 18, 2022 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

My father
would stand for hours
just looking at his cows

Like God leaning
on a rail fence in heaven
pleased with his creation

Ten Generations of Butterflies

Audio Recordings, Family, Farm, Nature / tagged Migration / November 14, 2022 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

It is mid November
and there are Monarchs
everywhere
at our new Texas home

It takes five generations
each way for them to get
from Mexico to Canada
and back

(Stan said so, and he
would know)

About sixty years ago
we lived for a year or two
at my grandfather's farm

He had a garden
A Canadian national treasure
(The newspapers all said so)

Ten thousand trees planted
on the bald-assed prairie
rich with fruit and flowers
no one else would even test
that far north and west

I watch generation nine or ten
lightly and unerringly
almost home again

and feel his DNA
happily spinning
in every cell

1 Reply

I Never Saw My Mother on Horseback

Audio Recordings, Cattle, Cows, Family, Farm, Ranch Life, Remembering / November 5, 2022 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

I understand that
she used to ride to school
but she was little and it was a farm
and somehow that didn't seem to count

When she was about 75 she told me about going with Dad to the far end of the ranch on a beautiful day a long time ago to help round up some strays

She said that she liked it a lot
and couldn't remember why she didn't do it more

Post navigation

← Older posts

Search

Search for:

Social

View zencowboypoet’s profile on Facebook
View @meilineil’s profile on Twitter
View neilmeili’s profile on Instagram

Neil’s Latest Book Available in Paperback and Large Print Edition though Amazon worldwide

Want More Poetry? Sign Up Here.

Latest Poetry

Buddha with a Toque
Morning Gratitudes
Recurring Dream
Lantana Manna
Tree Rings

Recent Comments

Ken Christopher on Timmy’s Down the Well
neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com on The Crow
Ken Christopher on The Crow
Ken Christopher on A Picture Poem
Ken Christopher on Oregon in Winter

Categories

Audio Recordings
Cattle
Cowboy Poetry
Cows
Environment
Family
Farm
Flight
Haiku
Limerick
Manure
Nature
News
Nostalgia
Personal Growth
Pilots
Poems about Poetry
Ranch Life
Relationships
Remembering
String Too Short To Save
Travel
Uncategorized

Tags

9-11 Aboriginal Aging Alcohol Art Art & Artists Autumn Birds Childhood Children Covid19 Death Dogs Dreams Faith Family Farm Farming Fear First Nations Friendship Gratitude Grief Healing Hope Horses Iraq Love Mother Music Nature Poetry Politics Prairie Psychology Ranch Life Regret Religion sensuality Solitude Spring Voice Dialogue War Winter Wisdom

Archives

Meta

Log in
Entries feed
Comments feed
WordPress.org

©2015 Neil Meili. All Right Reserved.

Theme Designed By ThemeVan | Powered by WordPress