Nostalgia – Neil Meili

Neil Meili

Zen Cowboy Poet & Freelance Philosopher

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Category: Nostalgia

Prairie Bumper Sticker

Audio Recordings, Nostalgia / tagged Saskatchewan / June 2, 2023 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Train Day

Audio Recordings, Nostalgia, Travel / tagged Saskatchewan, Small Town / June 1, 2023 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Once a week, once a week
they came from all around
and swelled and swelled
the size of our young town

And the chugging grew, and the chugging grew
and the chugging grew, and the whistle blew
and all was new, and the children knew

But now the lines are down, all down
old folks and old dogs in the town
not a child nor a pup, nor a pup
and not one elevator up

Old Train Math

Audio Recordings, Nostalgia, Remembering, Travel / tagged memories, Saskatchewan / May 30, 2023 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

If a train leaves Moose Jaw
heading west at the speed of first memory

Engine, cars, and caboose
zebra-ing by behind a snowfence
smoke billowing back over its shoulder

And another leaves, traveling east
from my writing of it now

When will they meet
at the small town of Courval
and your reading of this page

The Sunday-Go-Meeting Suit

Audio Recordings, Nostalgia, Ranch Life, Remembering / March 5, 2023 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

It only took but one
and it usually came in brown
for marrying in and burying in
and going off to town

The pants they came in twos
to double the life and use
each shining like an aura
from those well worn wooden pews

The Old Dry Guy and the Bath

Audio Recordings, Cowboy Poetry, Nostalgia, Ranch Life, Relationships, Remembering / March 4, 2023 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

The old timers were all settin around the general store
I think they'd been there forever, or a few days more
hocking up gossip, and spit and an occasional snore

And as it's always been, in the west or the east
the one who knew the most; said the least
He had a face like old harness and one bad eye
to myself I called him 'the old dry guy'

Late January one year the old boys were a buzz
old Jeb had got scalded and burned off some fuzz
He'd been bathing in his kitchen in the old tin tub
and reached across for the kettle to warm up the rub
slipping he'd spilt it and lost some skin and some hair
and the boys were all speculating' how much and where

They'd talked it around for three hours or more
when the old dry guy moved in his chair by the door

They all got real quiet and leaned closer to hear

He said: "Serves the damn fool right, takin a bath this time of year"

2 Replies

Old Sappy Love Song

Audio Recordings, Nostalgia / tagged Humor, Love, Valentine / February 13, 2023 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Heart
carved in
a maple tree
weeps sweet in memory

Fun in the Kitchen

Audio Recordings, Nostalgia, Poems about Poetry / tagged Feeding, Mom / February 12, 2023 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Author’s parents in the new ranch kitchen

Cookies on the Ranch

Audio Recordings, Family, Farm, Nostalgia, Ranch Life / tagged Baking, Childhood, Food, Mother / February 10, 2023 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Stars press their simple shapes into the sky - Dorianne Laux

Mom had shapers of thinnest tin
to make the stars and quarter moons

In a house this size and drafty
there was no way or wish to hide
from doors from the old wood stove
building building to the dawn of done

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

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