Farm – 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: Farm

Hi Ho Hi Ho

Audio Recordings, Farm, Poems about Poetry, Ranch Life / tagged Joy, Work / March 24, 2023 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Work

I sometimes think about it, but not too hard

Like, shouldn’t there be a different word
for doing what we love or hate for money

Like how I got to drive big trucks at eighteen
that I dreamed about at eight
and they paid me

Like playing cowboy and riding the range
where the deer and the antelope play
and getting paid

Building buildings bigger than Lego
and getting paid

Maybe work is about being serious
but I seriously question that too

I mean, what can be more joyous and serious
than a child adding one last block to his tower
or me, as I write this poem and look up
to see it is 1:25 in the morning

A Stoneboat Story

Audio Recordings, Farm, Ranch Life, Travel / tagged Farmboy, Hawaii, Hubris, Surfing / March 20, 2023 / 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”

Shelter Belt

Audio Recordings, Farm, Nature, Ranch Life / March 7, 2023 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

The job of the trees
is to stop the snow

If they wish
to turn green
in the summer
and play with birds
no one will object

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

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

Cookies on the Ranch

Audio Recordings, Family, Farm, Nostalgia, Ranch Life / tagged Baking, Childhood, Food, Mother / February 10, 2023 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Stars press their simple shapes into the sky - Dorianne Laux

Mom had shapers of thinnest tin
to make the stars and quarter moons

In a house this size and drafty
there was no way or wish to hide
from doors from the old wood stove
building building to the dawn of done

Snow Blind

Audio Recordings, Cattle, Farm, Nature, Ranch Life / tagged memories, Winter / February 7, 2023 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Snow on the backs of cattle
snow on the shovel lifting
snow on the sled hill squifting
snow on the ice road surfing
snow on the shed roof aching
snow in the memories binding
snow in the diamonds blinding

This Cold

Audio Recordings, Farm, Nature, Ranch Life / tagged Snow, Winter / February 6, 2023 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

This cold the snow squeaks underfoot
all the way from house to barn

as if in protest gainst the added pain
of stepping on each flake's
fragile frostbit fingers

Courage Down the Well

Audio Recordings, Farm, Ranch Life / tagged Tenacity / January 27, 2023 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Arthur Fisher for example
who sold the ranch to Dad
and gave me my first name
and a lake-stone ring he’d made

All alone in
the twenties dug a well by the house
lowering himself into a dark dirt shaft
that could cave him dead at any second

100 feet down, an inch at a time
and how did he get the heavy bucket up

How did he feel when he hit the capstone
picked up the pickaxe and the shovel
moved a hundred feet and started again

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

Post navigation

← Older posts

Search

Search for:

Social

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

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

Want More Poetry? Sign Up Here.

Latest Poetry

The Test
Kaleidoscope
The Courage of Miners
Hi Ho Hi Ho
Living Aloha

Recent Comments

Ken on Living Aloha
Ken Christopher on Man Upright
barbara joy on Limerick for Luhansk
barbara joy on Limerick for Luhansk
NANCY FIERSTIEN on The Jester

Categories

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

9-11 Aboriginal Aging Alcohol Art Art & Artists Autumn Birds Childhood Children Covid19 Death Dogs Dreams Faith Family Farm Farming Fear First Nations Friendship Gratitude Grief Healing Hope Horses Iraq Love Mother Music Nature Poetry Politics Prairie Psychology Ranch Life Regret Religion sensuality Solitude Spring Voice Dialogue War Winter Wisdom

Archives

Meta

Log in
Entries feed
Comments feed
WordPress.org

©2015 Neil Meili. All Right Reserved.

Theme Designed By ThemeVan | Powered by WordPress