Ranch Life – Neil Meili

Neil Meili

Zen Cowboy Poet & Freelance Philosopher

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Category: Ranch Life

And All the Ships at Sea

Audio Recordings, Farm, Ranch Life, Travel / tagged Home, Journey / March 14, 2026 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

In Arabia
camels are called
the ships of the desert

On the prairies
what Charles Simic calls
armadas of bed sheets and shirts
tell the sailors they're safely home

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

Death May Be Different

Audio Recordings, Farm, Ranch Life / tagged Acceptance, Aging, Death, Dying, Grace, Transition / March 11, 2026 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Death may be different
for folks from the city

For farm boys
maybe as simple as
getting on the old bay
hands loose on the reins
knowing it knows the way to the barn

Strapping Youth

Audio Recordings, Nostalgia, Ranch Life / tagged Education, Violence / March 6, 2026 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

A one room school
was a one teacher school
when she was good it was good
and when she was bad it was awful

Those were the days
of the strap on the hand
and a mix of shame and pain that remain

We all had rifles at home
but never thought to bring them to school

What We Did at Country School

Audio Recordings, Ranch Life / tagged Cruelty, Danger / March 5, 2026 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

The garter snake
is colourful and kind
it means no harm to man

In venomous snakes the young
are more dangerous than the old

The garter snakes have found
it is the same with man

Small School Pictures

Audio Recordings, Nostalgia, Ranch Life, Remembering / tagged Childhood, Education / March 4, 2026 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Seven students and eight grades
with the inkwells covered to save the braids

Desks with dad's initials carved years ago
and lessons meant for other ears
more interesting than your own
as you crammed to sting
the older kids in spelling bees

Recess, with garter snakes, gophers and mice
which girls who were being chased, and teachers with just opened desk drawers didn't think were so nice
and a big teeter totter on the north side high enough
to get a bobbing glimpse of one of the big boys
hand outstretched for a well deserved strap

In winter, a pot-bellied stove in the back of the room
with a big tin shield to keep us from burning ourselves
any lapse in supervision adding to its decor as we melted wax crayons into modern art on its silver sides

The colours still fresh

How I Lost My Faith – In Preachers

Audio Recordings, Farm, Ranch Life, Travel / tagged Cowardice, Humor / March 3, 2026 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

It was a cold and muddy Sunday
Our little caravan of Christians
children, parents and student minister
stuck in the spring mud a mile from church

Me and city cousin Wayne
the chosen ones at age seven
chosen to walk
to the nearest neighbor
while the others wait in the cars

The neighbour's not home
but his Cockshutt 40 tractor is

Some combination of farm boy bravado
and reluctance to slog
back to the cars in defeat
comes out as "I can drive a tractor!"

One foot each on the clutch and a good deal of riding gets us into low gear
and off at about 2 miles per

The student minister meets us
two thirds of the way back

As our leader
in all things spiritual and practical
he decrees that we are going
far too slow
and selects another gear
(probably at random, he's from the city too)

The one he picks is the fastest
known in these parts as "Road Gear"
and we quickly accelerate to thirty

which causes the preacher to panic
(or remember the he forgot his bible)
and leap off

leaving us to wrestle the big red monster
now wildly careening from rut to rut
and rocketing toward the mired cars
and fearful families

Wrenching the wheel to
at the last possible moment
we narrowly avoid death and destruction
and stall to stop in the water-filled ditch
amidst the prayers of the congregation

1 Reply

Little Church

Audio Recordings, Family, Ranch Life / tagged Children, Embarrassment, Humor, Religion / March 1, 2026 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Sometimes as far from everywhere as we were
a visiting or student minister would make the long trek and our one room school would become a church for the day

It didn't happen often
so the first time my three year old brother
sitting in the second row heard him say Jesus Christ he turned and said
"He swore Mom the minister swore
"Shh" said my mother
"He swore, he swore, he swore" said Wally
every effort to silence him only increasing his insistence and volume

Most fun that most of us, except my mother
ever had in church

The Innocence of Snow

Audio Recordings, Cattle, Cows, Family, Farm, Nature, News, Nostalgia, Ranch Life, Remembering / January 28, 2026 / 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 the door with news of war

Winter on the ranch Kin = Family & Kine = Cattle

Snow Blind

Audio Recordings, Nature, Nostalgia, Ranch Life / tagged Winter / January 27, 2026 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Snow of the backs of cattle

snow on the shovel lifting
snow on the sled hill squifting

snow on the ice road surfing
snow on the shed roof aching

snow in the memories binding
snow in the diamonds blinding

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Eda Lishman on How I Lost My Faith – In PreachersMarch 3, 2026
An epic moment for seven year olds! Wow how many lessons can you have in one incident? And a few…
Nancy Fierstien on A Tear for the RichFebruary 23, 2026
Another gem worth it's weight in gold from you, Neil Meili!
Sandi Hebley on Lonely LightFebruary 12, 2026
How sweet!
Anonymous on CirclesJanuary 18, 2026
Both Gloria and I were touched by your poem. Congrats. Tom and Gloria
LeoraLawrence Porter on Sacred DanceJanuary 18, 2026
Thank you, from an unknowing dancing healer! as for my liking… While I greatly, greatly appreciate your clarity of voice…

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