Farm – Neil Meili

Neil Meili

Zen Cowboy Poet & Freelance Philosopher

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Category: Farm

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

For the Poetry

Audio Recordings, Family, Farm, Flight, Personal Growth, Poems about Poetry, Ranch Life, Relationships / tagged Education / January 6, 2026 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

For the poetry
I have walked long walks
on large ranch with faithful dog
and picked the crocus from the earth

For the poetry
I have comforted
a mother and bowed to a father

Gone to schools
that taught strange things
and passed them on to others

Fallen in love and never out
rode horses and flown planes
and built buildings stick by stick

1 Reply

Prairie Boy’s Christmas

Audio Recordings, Cattle, Cows, Farm, Ranch Life / tagged Belief, Christmas, Faith / December 25, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

He has trouble imagining Magi
and the deserts they had to cross

But the warmth
of the stable is in his bones
and can easily relate to the babe

Living on an Island Many Called a Farm

Audio Recordings, Farm, Ranch Life, Travel / tagged Isolation, Story / December 24, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Sometimes a sailor from abroad
would cross the wide sea of sod

Telling to the adults tales
of cities, mountains and war

Though I had doubts at two
if any part of it was true

A Stoneboat Story

Audio Recordings, Farm, Ranch Life / December 23, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Rough planks across two wood-beam runners
low and tough enough to tip a heavy rock on
or haul the cleanings of the stalls in winter

Learning to stand in loose-kneed balance
full speed behind fast homing horse
across the frozen tracks and turds
on the way back to the barn

Later off Oahu Buff teaching me to surf
I think "Just like this"
until the big wave comes and says "Not quite"

Don’t Slam The …

Audio Recordings, Farm, Nostalgia, Ranch Life / tagged Home / December 4, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

A screen door hangs
between screened porch
and indoors in our Austin home

As such it is of little use
in keeping flying pests at bay

but the creaky creak it squeaks
brings back summers on the farm
and woe be to he who does it harm

Modern Medicine It Ain’t

Audio Recordings, Cattle, Cows, Farm, Ranch Life / November 24, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

10 cc's of Carnation Milk

Inject it just beneath the skin
pink eye cured in a Hereford calf

Old wives remedies you say
maybe that's how they got that way

Cowversations

Audio Recordings, Cattle, Cowboy Poetry, Cows, Farm, Ranch Life / tagged Communication, Humor / November 21, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

One of the reasons I got out of ranching
was the long drought of good conversation

Cowhands
true to their fame are men of few words

Horses ain't bad
they will at least point their ears and pretend

But cows, it was the cows that did it
how they'd saucer eye like listening
while you chewed them out in detail
about all the dumb things that they'd done

Turn away to ruminate upon the lesson
and two days later kick you for no reason

Conversations with Horses

Audio Recordings, Farm, Ranch Life / tagged Animals, Communication / November 20, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

I never had a horse that talked to me
like Mister 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 for me, I can only imagine
- or count the number of times bucked off

Dances with Horses

Audio Recordings, Cowboy Poetry, Family, Farm, Ranch Life / tagged Horses / November 19, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

And what is the poem of Rusty
who slips at full gallop and picks up all four feet
and sets them down sure on the next dry spot

Of Lady so afraid of wire
she can buck fourteen hours tired
if a four inch chunk should strike a hoof

And the dance of the wild mare ikn the corral
who kicks and one foot goes by on each side of your head

And of the cold separated from mother's flank
by a gunny sack in the face and a quick gate
who turns a tight arc and comes back at you, and you see it in the eyes and duch and he sails over
taking out the top rail

And you hear that your father gave you
the first compliment you've ever hear of
by turning to the man beside him and saying

"The damned fool will get himself killed someday"

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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…
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…

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Remembering
String Too Short To Save
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