Remembering – Page 13 – Neil Meili

Neil Meili

Zen Cowboy Poet & Freelance Philosopher

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Category: Remembering

Sheets to the Wind

Audio Recordings, Farm, Ranch Life, Remembering / tagged Laundry / March 6, 2023 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Reminded by Marymae the other day

of Monday's wash in Tuesday's wind
and bending sheets to bring them in

It was just enough starch
and thirty degrees below in March

About how fingers got cold as hell
but I think it was really about the smell

Yes that was the part she wanted to tell
it was really the freshness of that smell

1 Reply

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"

3 Replies

Sayings From an Old Ranch Kitchen

Audio Recordings, Family, Farm, Ranch Life, Remembering / tagged Childhood, Eating, Mother / February 11, 2023 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

"Clean off your plate
there are starving people in China"
"Take the last food from the bowls
we'll have a nice day tomorrow"
I never put it together this way
but the people in China
must have always had a nice day

Touring the Camps

Audio Recordings, Remembering / tagged Education, Holocaust / January 30, 2023 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

All German schoolchildren visit the camps; this is Auschwitz II For more information about Yom Hashoah – Holocaust Remembrance Day visit https://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/us/yom-hashoah

Holocaust Happens

Audio Recordings, News, Remembering / tagged Death, Education, Holocaust, War / January 29, 2023 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Yesterday was holocaust reminder day
Remembrance day for those who remember
Reminder day for those who forgot
Shofar calling to those who’ve never heard

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

Tastes of Childhood

Audio Recordings, Family, Nostalgia, Remembering / tagged Christmas, Holiday, memories / December 15, 2022 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

When I was two or three
and my mother read to me

When Alice fell down the rabbit hole
I fell down the rabbit hole
tumbling over and over in the air
the memory is still there

Ribbon candy and real candles on the tree

Christmas chocolates made at home
from a factory recipe someone
slipped to someone on a train

Taste buds still budding
tasting with my whole body

Slowly I've forgotten how
only love and fear can do it now

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Sandi Hebley on Ready for WinterOctober 26, 2026
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NEIL MEILI on Laughing With the DeadOctober 25, 2026
Thanks for the story Sandi, And bet he is and that I would have liked him Neil
Sandi Hebley on Okay Now – MostlyOctober 22, 2026
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Sandi Hebley on Laughing With the DeadOctober 21, 2026
One of my fondest memories is that the last full sentence my dad spoke was to tell a visitor a…
Sandi Hebley on BeemersOctober 18, 2026
Ha!!!

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