Audio Recordings – Page 140 – Neil Meili

Neil Meili

Zen Cowboy Poet & Freelance Philosopher

Skip to content

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

Category: Audio Recordings

Memories that Stick

Audio Recordings, Farm, Ranch Life / October 6, 2022 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Memories that Stick # 8 Flypaper in the Kitchen

Farms have flies
and choose who dies
and children learn it young

Ancient kings
put heads on pikes
to warn of upstarts fate

but didn't have to listen to
the buzzing while they ate

A Funny Story

Audio Recordings, Family, Remembering / tagged Childhood, Humor / October 5, 2022 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

In the dream I say to brother Wally

You’re going to have to tell the story
or the milk I drank way back then
is going to come out my nose again

Lifebuoy

Audio Recordings, Family, Nostalgia / October 4, 2022 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

I never have learned to swear very well
which just goes to show that training will tell

That there is much to be said for good homes
and payoffs for stern discipline and hope

It's not that I don't know the words
but they all still taste like soap

Buffalo Chips

Audio Recordings, Cattle, Cows, Farm, Manure, Nostalgia, Ranch Life / tagged Childhood, Play / October 3, 2022 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Lily pads floating
on the sea of prairie grass

Heat for the tepees
or the homesteader's cabin

Nothing wasted in the West

And every boy knew
that a good sharp stick or a pointy-toed shoe
would let you know
if one was just right, or still a little too new

And I'm here to tell you, that compared to a good dry chip
meeting a West wind's invitation
a Frisbee is a weak and poor, plastic imitation

Conversations with Horses

Audio Recordings, Farm, Ranch Life / tagged Horses / October 2, 2022 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

I never had a horse that talked to me
like Mr. Ed on sixties TV

If I had I might have learned a lot

I did talk to them of course
but mostly by knee and rein and spur
and sometimes thank you for a job well done

As for messages to me, I can only imagine
- or count the number of times bucked off

Smells of the Corrals

Audio Recordings, Cattle, Cows, Farm, Manure, Ranch Life / tagged Horses / October 1, 2022 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Horses don’t smell like cows
except when your nose is full
of acrid smoke at branding time

Disinfectant
from the pail for sloshing on the bag
after their prairie oysters are shucked
and later them oysters on the open fire

Burning
from the wire-saw freeing the ingrown horn

Dung flung
and dung hung on boots and belt and butt
from the calf that beat you at ‘who throws who’

1 Reply

Prairie Labyrinth

Audio Recordings, Farm / tagged First Nations, Indigenous Peoples, Native Americans / September 29, 2022 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Back
on the old
Saskatchewan ranch

If there are still places
that the plow
hasn't turned over

How long a
and how quietly
would I have to walk
round the tepee circles

to be invited, if ever, inside

Old Barn Leaning

Audio Recordings, Farm, Ranch Life, Remembering / September 28, 2022 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Still standing by the grace
of planks to the east
wind to the west

and a world in every
dust mote memory

Memory Lanes

Audio Recordings, Nostalgia / tagged Memory, Work / September 27, 2022 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Once again in summer
where prairie blacktop ribbons
over Saskatchewan’s slow rolling hills
past grazing cow and half grown grain

driving on the road I helped to build
back when I was eighteen teen
five hundred years and yesterday ago
hauling asphalt to the spreader
in a truck hot, dirty, and mean
and eating steak for breakfast
with men of tar and grit

still with a smile
each time I pass
a road crew at their work

the odor, odious
to you and almost all
as sweet to me as youth
and lilac in the wind

Highway 2 from Moose Jaw to Mossbank
Photo by author, September 2022

Gravel Lane

Audio Recordings, Family, Farm, Ranch Life, Travel / September 26, 2022 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

You turn off the main road
head east over the little rise
down the long slope to the buildings

Crushed rock, crushed again
talking back to your tires

as eloquent as Demosthenes
spitting pebbles by the sea

On ranch-house porch
half a mile away
sight blocked by
trees and hedge

she knows which truck
who’s driving
and what kind of
day you’re having

Post navigation

← Older posts

Newer 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.

Anonymous on Rule BritannicaNovember 6, 2026
Amen to that.
Sandi Hebley on Ready for WinterOctober 26, 2026
😁😁
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
🤗
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…

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 Seasons sensuality Spring Trees War Winter Wisdom

©2015 Neil Meili. All Right Reserved.

Theme Designed By ThemeVan | Powered by WordPress

Loading Comments...

Write a Comment...

Email

Name

Website