August 2024 – Page 3 – Neil Meili

Neil Meili

Zen Cowboy Poet & Freelance Philosopher

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Monthly Archives: August 2024

The Useless Lake

Audio Recordings, Cattle, Cows, Farm, Nature, Ranch Life / tagged Birds / August 8, 2024 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

At the edge of our ranch
lay a large and useless lake

True, it was pretty enough
when the sun struck it just right

And the alkali
didn’t seem to be a problem
for the seeming millions
of cormorants, gulls and pelicans
who embraced it for their home

There were even men
living along the south shore
who may have been happy
mining its salt for money

What I meant was
it was water
that the cows couldn’t drink

1 Reply

What Turns Up

Audio Recordings, Farm, Ranch Life / tagged Birds / August 7, 2024 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

In the long field by the lake
turning the earth is turning up worms

Looking over your shoulder
you'd swear you were birthing gulls

1 Reply

The Story of Storks

Audio Recordings, Farm, Nature, Ranch Life / tagged Birds, Birth / August 6, 2024 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

The story of storks bringing babies
was a hard sell on the ranch

Along with watching others arrive in other ways
the storybook pictures of tile roofs and tall chimneys
didn't look anything much like Saskatchewan

And why such an improbable bird
carrying little nipper in a knotted cotton nappie
(although some foresight might be granted there)

When readily available about a mile away
was a lake full of pelicans better suited to the task

Mother’s Poem

Audio Recordings, Cattle, Cows, Family, Farm, Nostalgia, Ranch Life, Relationships, Remembering / tagged Care, Love / August 5, 2024 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

The kitchen has always been the center of the universe of any farm or ranch

She feeds their sleepy forms in morning
clothes them for the cold or warm
and prays them safe from harm

Looks out her window to the east
where barn shadows and rolling hills
greet them as they start their day

Men in firm direction to their work
children scattering to play

Then south across the lake to catch the water's mood foretelling wind or calm

Sometimes sees in morning
mirages of cutbanks rising
like mountains along the Eastern shore

Or more directly to the south
forms of her neighbour's homes rising and shimmering like memories of her youth

Seasons spiral out and in from this center
crocus and buttercups in the greening grass
cactus flowers and the joy of newborn calves

The growing season of the grain
and golden glory of a well stooked field

The shortening of days into winter
and the ever present stars
joined by the dance of northern lights

Within each season she has watched the play of seasons of each day
men returning from roundup
children from their play

While she waits always at the center
to warm and love

and safely tuck away

Mom and brother Wally in the ranch kitchen 1952

Old Ranch Physics

Audio Recordings, Farm, Nostalgia, Ranch Life / tagged Childhood, Play, Science / August 4, 2024 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Centrifugal force
is a gopher circling
on a binder twine noose

A cinch breaking
on a quarter-horse turning
and how far from the horse you fall

A quarter spinning
in the big bread-mixing bowl
and the up and down whoosh of the whine

The Cellar

Audio Recordings, Family, Farm, Ranch Life / tagged Basement, memories / August 3, 2024 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Rough as a cave
floor of hard-packed dirt
and eastern wall at a wicked slant
where the forming gave as cement was poured

Root cellar and walls of jars
The sisters remember lizards
not being afraid of lizards I don’t

Giant rumbling one-vent furnace
that sent our survival heat straight up
to find its way through leaky house any way it could

Children on a ranch can find anywhere to play
- Not there

Memories of Three or Four

Audio Recordings, Family, Farm, Ranch Life / August 2, 2024 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

I remember being nestled ='
in that old ranch kitchen
deep in the warmth of washday Monday

The Maytag's liquid sounds mixing
with the gentle driving chugs
of the little gas engine

Sloshing and chugging sloshing and chugging
as I curled up beside it
in the great pile of laundry
rich with the smells of the people I loved

Half asleep half awake I floated there
all my senses safely cradled and warmed
and part of a rhythm and a sound
like a heartbeat in a womb

1 Reply

Your Face By Lightning

Audio Recordings / tagged Connections, Memory / August 1, 2024 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Candlelight is soft and lasting
if only as long as the wax

Lightning lit it lasts forever

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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…
barbara joy on MessagesJanuary 16, 2026
profound
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…

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