Neil Meili

Zen Cowboy Poet & Freelance Philosopher

Skip to content

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

Tag Archives: Work

Church Windows

Audio Recordings / tagged Fear, Work / December 27, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Someone, I think it was Rilke, said
Religion is like a window
you can see God through it
but it keeps you from touching him

Summer job at sixteen
removing for re-leading
panels of old stained glass
from Moose Jaw's St. Andrews church

Rickety extension ladder
up to a plank between the parapets
another ladder barely on it
and a long drop to the stone steps

Hands trembling, knees shaking
glad I was on the God side of the glass

Building Roads with Alden

Audio Recordings, Poems about Poetry, Remembering / tagged Work / December 14, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

If there comes a time when truck drivers read poetry, mine will be the poetry they'll read. - Alden Nowlan

I'd like to think
if someone from the day shift
had left a book of Alden's on the seat

and I'd picked it up
while waiting for the spreader

Young tho I was, and trucker proud
of the silver badges on my belt
and the black ribbon we were laying

he'd have had a hard time getting it back

The Author, at age 18, drove for Ramsey and Bird paving highways in Southern Saskatchewan. Silver badges were Chauffeur’s Licenses required for professional drivers

A Shadow of My Farmer Self

Audio Recordings, Cattle, Farm, Poems about Poetry, Ranch Life / tagged Work / October 16, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

The one
who got up with the summer sun
and toiled till the work was done
is done

The one
who would’ve slept the winter away
if it wasn’t for critters hungry ways
now versifies on his clock
with Seamus Heaney’s squat pen
resting between finger and thumb
instead of a three-tined pitchfork
raising blisters in the hot, hot sun

Credit: Seamus Heaney; DIGGING https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47555/digging

Subsistence Wage

Audio Recordings / tagged Control, Dignity, Economics, Poverty, Struggle, Work / October 2, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Peons have no need of pockets
all will be spent on food and rent

Any more or less and they
become a danger to the state

And yet their songs and laughter
like Mary wash the savior’s feet

Learning From Coyotes

Audio Recordings, Personal Growth / tagged Freedom, Sacrifice, Traps, Work / October 1, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Oh man most glorious beast
long chained to desk or destiny

Knowing while trying not to know
that it is worth
the chewing off of a leg to be free

Working with Father

Audio Recordings, Cattle, Family, Farm, Nostalgia, Ranch Life, Relationships / tagged Chores, Work / July 28, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

In the short days of a long winter
we sort nuts, bolt, and washers
against the busy days of summer

Place them in well-marked bins
accompanied always by his mentor's
Never waste five dollars worth of time
looking for a five cent bolt

The 9/16th fine-threads do not go in
with the regular or coarse

When you're four
it's not hard to geet up
at four to ride in the cattle truck to the city with your dad
excitement keeps you awake all night

There are know you need to know
reef, sheepshank, and the ever popular bowline that can still be undone even after looping a red bull weighing a ton

Hood the twine around your little finger just so, in a way that I could never get, three turns and knot the gunny sack in two seconds flat

Heel that calf, or turn the herd
drive the truck at the perfect speed
to catch the combine on the fly

There is a great deal of pleasure in doing something right, when right is the only way anything should ever be done

But never far, even yet
from the red-black cloud
of doing it wrong

Sodbusters

Audio Recordings, Farm, Ranch Life / tagged Displacement, First Nations, Foreclosure, Homesteading, Native American, Pioneers, Settlers, Work / March 14, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

We homestead in our bodies too - Bill Holm

You have to prove it up
build some shelter
plant some seed
or let the next guy try

You will turn up arrowheads
---- the bankers got them too

https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/dominion-lands-policy

Bull Low

Audio Recordings, Farm, Ranch Life / tagged Machinery, Power, Trucks, Work / December 20, 2024 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Only in trucks the lowest gear
had a name that was not a steer

Anything you
wanted to haul up the steepest hill
Anything you wanted
to pull out of wherever it was stuck

Deep throated power in that sound
the mightiest beast for miles around

1 Reply

Swathing

Audio Recordings, Farm, Ranch Life / tagged Harvest, Nourishment, Pride, Satisfaction, Wheat, Work / November 14, 2024 / 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 perfect swaths

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

Tonight once more he'll fall asleep
counting loaves of bread instead of sheep

Why Now

Audio Recordings, Family, Farm, Ranch Life, Relationships / tagged Frustration, Work / September 20, 2024 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Why Now! Dad would say
when anything at all broke
in the middle of a busy day
of farming and ranching work

Wasn't sure if he was mad
at the gods or at me (It felt like me)

No use to say that things break from use and most often when you're using them
it was a personal affront in every case
purely intended to inconvenience him

Retired and attired for an old friend's birthday party
when the phone rang to say Canceled
because of the guest of honor's sudden death

The red fire again climbing up the whites of his eyes

Post navigation

← Older posts

Search

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

Social

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

Want More Poetry? Sign Up Here.

Eda Lishman on For the PoetryJanuary 7, 2026
Neil: what a daily gentlre reminder ...this broight me many memories of walking out into the open prairie searching for…
NEIL MEILI on Grocery Shopping in AustinDecember 13, 2025
Thanks Pamela, Love to see some of your haiku and you and Pamela in the new year. All blessings, Neil…
pat psooy on Saturday Night in AustinDecember 6, 2025
Kinda like that better than the shining lights of Vegas
Pamela on Grocery Shopping in AustinDecember 5, 2025
Hi Neil! And Neil is still Neil! Hoping to see you and Dorsey in the new year. My poems have…
Nancy Fierstien on Don’t Judge A House By Its CoverDecember 3, 2025
Another terse verse way to capture the way I feel about living under a blue tin roof for almost 30…

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

Aboriginal Aging Alcohol Art Art & Artists Autumn Beauty Birds Childhood Communication Connection Covid19 Death Dogs Dreams Faith Family Fear First Nations Friendship Gratitude Grief Healing Hope Horses Humor Loss Love Mother Music Nature Perspective Poetry Prairie Psychology Ranch Life Regret Religion sensuality Solitude Spring Voice Dialogue War Winter Wisdom

©2015 Neil Meili. All Right Reserved.

Theme Designed By ThemeVan | Powered by WordPress

Loading Comments...

Write a Comment...

Email

Name

Website