Ranch Life – Neil Meili

Neil Meili

Zen Cowboy Poet & Freelance Philosopher

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Category: Ranch Life

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

The Sunday-Go-Meeting Suit

Audio Recordings, Nostalgia, Ranch Life, Remembering / March 5, 2023 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

It only took but one
and it usually came in brown
for marrying in and burying in
and going off to town

The pants they came in twos
to double the life and use
each shining like an aura
from those well worn wooden pews

The Old Dry Guy and the Bath

Audio Recordings, Cowboy Poetry, Nostalgia, Ranch Life, Relationships, Remembering / March 4, 2023 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

The old timers were all settin around the general store
I think they'd been there forever, or a few days more
hocking up gossip, and spit and an occasional snore

And as it's always been, in the west or the east
the one who knew the most; said the least
He had a face like old harness and one bad eye
to myself I called him 'the old dry guy'

Late January one year the old boys were a buzz
old Jeb had got scalded and burned off some fuzz
He'd been bathing in his kitchen in the old tin tub
and reached across for the kettle to warm up the rub
slipping he'd spilt it and lost some skin and some hair
and the boys were all speculating' how much and where

They'd talked it around for three hours or more
when the old dry guy moved in his chair by the door

They all got real quiet and leaned closer to hear

He said: "Serves the damn fool right, takin a bath this time of year"

2 Replies

The Eddie Arnold Kitchen Collection

Audio Recordings, Cattle, Ranch Life, String Too Short To Save / tagged Humor, Music / February 15, 2023 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

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

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