Ranch Life – Neil Meili

Neil Meili

Zen Cowboy Poet & Freelance Philosopher

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Category: Ranch Life

First Art Project

Audio Recordings, Family, Farm, Ranch Life, Relationships / tagged Art, Father / January 26, 2022 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

The Fog of Farming

Audio Recordings, Farm, Haiku, Nature, Ranch Life / tagged Appreciation, Beauty / January 9, 2022 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

In an eighty acre field of flax

it is easy

to overlook

the beauty of a single flower

The Day I Saw the UFO

Audio Recordings, Farm, Flight, Ranch Life / December 18, 2021 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

I'm sitting
with my back against the tractor tire
eating lunch in the long field by the lake

It flies over directly south to north
plenty high and far from humanly fast
It is made of a metal that shines out of itself
I rise with a smile
brush the crumbs from my jeans
set my eyes on the furrow
and let out the clutch

Inspiration

Audio Recordings, Farm, Ranch Life / tagged Inspiration, Music / December 17, 2021 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

I've looked at clouds from both sides now - Joni Mitchell

Saskatchewan girl Joni
with only sky for view
riding a tractor
all the long way
to the end of the field
and back again - all day

Henry Moore

Audio Recordings, Cattle, Cowboy Poetry, Cows, Farm, Ranch Life / tagged Art, sculpture / December 8, 2021 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Henry Moore was a smart old cowboy
a smart old cowboy was he

Just as sly as a fox
be bought twenty-foot salt blocks
and set them out in West Texas in winter

Where a thousand strong tongues
changed those basic hard foods
into a bunch of reclining nudes

There are times when it bothers
my conscience to see
them hangin’ around London,
New York, and D.C.

Then I remember old Hank is one of the boys
just suckerin’ some dudes with these toys

So I decide not to chip off the bronze

Winner at the Great Salt Lick Contest, Baker City Oregon
https://whitdeschner.com/salt-lick-gallery/

1 Reply

Dreams of My Father

Audio Recordings, Cattle, Cows, Family, Farm, Ranch Life, Relationships / tagged Illness, Stroke / December 7, 2021 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Six weeks you lay in a coma
what dreams you had
I never asked, you never said

The telling of dreams
was not a morning ritual in our home

If in grade two
I had been asked of yours
I'd most likely have said
More cows and a better horse

Cowversations

Audio Recordings, Cattle, Cowboy Poetry, Cows, Farm, Ranch Life / December 5, 2021 / 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

Horse Shadows

Audio Recordings, Farm, Nostalgia, Ranch Life, Remembering / tagged Cowboys / December 2, 2021 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Horse Shadows - for Lady and Rusty

Only in western movies
men die before their horses

The rest of us old cowboys
still carry them carrying us

For Mary Who Loves Horses

Audio Recordings, Farm, Ranch Life, Relationships / October 5, 2021 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

I have ridden the fence line
without believing in fences
I have been one with the movement of horse
the strength and speed of horse
the grace of horse
and the soul of horse
I have been one with the wind
and the high rolling hills
and the sky
I have stepped down
with my hands filled with staples and pliers
For the welfare of cattle and neighbours
who still have the need of believing in fences

Image by Michael Gaida from Pixabay

Old Injuries

Audio Recordings, Ranch Life / tagged Aging, Pain / September 14, 2021 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Living with
what didn’t kill you outright

Sayings like
it makes you stronger

little comfort in the morning

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