Ranch Life – Page 2 – 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: Ranch Life

Black Beauty

Audio Recordings, Farm, Ranch Life / tagged Cats, pets / March 29, 2026 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

When we moved to Grandfather's old farm
no on had been living there for a while
and all the cats had gone wild

We found a litter of kittens
hidden deep in a corner of the loft
and among them
the most beautiful black and white kitten

Spitting and crouching under the eaves
she scratched all of us to the bone
If I'd been a tree there would
have been six rings

Much persistence we got her out
much time and love and we tamed her
if one every really tames a cat

Best cat ever
adopted by our cousins when we moved
and one of the things we most looked forward to on our visits was Black Beauty and her newest of who knew how many litters

The tomcats in that town were also
excelled judges of beauty

Our Shop Was a Town

Audio Recordings, Farm, Ranch Life / tagged Prepared, Self Sufficint, Work / March 15, 2026 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Hardware store
of bins along the wall
with nuts and sores and bolts
well sorted out from large to small

Tools of every kind handy to the hand
and jacks and pry-bars for any lift or pull

Welding shop well set up
with helmet and rod for every job
and blacksmith's anvil and hammers
to bend or straighten as the need decreed

Lumber yard of saws and planes
with nail kegs lined up along the floor
and a good supply of wood of every size

A vet's supply for animal ills
a yellow stretcher for barbed wire
and every kind of skill it took
to keep the farm ranch running
without driving forty miles to Moose Jaw

And All the Ships at Sea

Audio Recordings, Farm, Ranch Life, Travel / tagged Home, Journey / March 14, 2026 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

In Arabia
camels are called
the ships of the desert

On the prairies
what Charles Simic calls
armadas of bed sheets and shirts
tell the sailors they're safely home

The Farm, The Ranch and the Sweeping Scythe

Audio Recordings, Cowboy Poetry, Farm, Nature, Ranch Life / tagged Death / March 13, 2026 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Sunrise can be brilly bright
and all day long
everything out to get you

The horse can kick or fall
the bull has horns of steel

Every machine is grinding its teeth
in wait for a chance to bite

and every snowstorm
eager to find you
too far from the barn
and stiffen you like the manure-pile cat

The sunsets worth surviving for

Death May Be Different

Audio Recordings, Farm, Ranch Life / tagged Acceptance, Aging, Death, Dying, Grace, Transition / March 11, 2026 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Death may be different
for folks from the city

For farm boys
maybe as simple as
getting on the old bay
hands loose on the reins
knowing it knows the way to the barn

Strapping Youth

Audio Recordings, Nostalgia, Ranch Life / tagged Education, Violence / March 6, 2026 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

A one room school
was a one teacher school
when she was good it was good
and when she was bad it was awful

Those were the days
of the strap on the hand
and a mix of shame and pain that remain

We all had rifles at home
but never thought to bring them to school

What We Did at Country School

Audio Recordings, Ranch Life / tagged Cruelty, Danger / March 5, 2026 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

The garter snake
is colourful and kind
it means no harm to man

In venomous snakes the young
are more dangerous than the old

The garter snakes have found
it is the same with man

Small School Pictures

Audio Recordings, Nostalgia, Ranch Life, Remembering / tagged Childhood, Education / March 4, 2026 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Seven students and eight grades
with the inkwells covered to save the braids

Desks with dad's initials carved years ago
and lessons meant for other ears
more interesting than your own
as you crammed to sting
the older kids in spelling bees

Recess, with garter snakes, gophers and mice
which girls who were being chased, and teachers with just opened desk drawers didn't think were so nice
and a big teeter totter on the north side high enough
to get a bobbing glimpse of one of the big boys
hand outstretched for a well deserved strap

In winter, a pot-bellied stove in the back of the room
with a big tin shield to keep us from burning ourselves
any lapse in supervision adding to its decor as we melted wax crayons into modern art on its silver sides

The colours still fresh

How I Lost My Faith – In Preachers

Audio Recordings, Farm, Ranch Life, Travel / tagged Cowardice, Humor / March 3, 2026 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

It was a cold and muddy Sunday
Our little caravan of Christians
children, parents and student minister
stuck in the spring mud a mile from church

Me and city cousin Wayne
the chosen ones at age seven
chosen to walk
to the nearest neighbor
while the others wait in the cars

The neighbour's not home
but his Cockshutt 40 tractor is

Some combination of farm boy bravado
and reluctance to slog
back to the cars in defeat
comes out as "I can drive a tractor!"

One foot each on the clutch and a good deal of riding gets us into low gear
and off at about 2 miles per

The student minister meets us
two thirds of the way back

As our leader
in all things spiritual and practical
he decrees that we are going
far too slow
and selects another gear
(probably at random, he's from the city too)

The one he picks is the fastest
known in these parts as "Road Gear"
and we quickly accelerate to thirty

which causes the preacher to panic
(or remember the he forgot his bible)
and leap off

leaving us to wrestle the big red monster
now wildly careening from rut to rut
and rocketing toward the mired cars
and fearful families

Wrenching the wheel to
at the last possible moment
we narrowly avoid death and destruction
and stall to stop in the water-filled ditch
amidst the prayers of the congregation

1 Reply

Little Church

Audio Recordings, Family, Ranch Life / tagged Children, Embarrassment, Humor, Religion / March 1, 2026 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Sometimes as far from everywhere as we were
a visiting or student minister would make the long trek and our one room school would become a church for the day

It didn't happen often
so the first time my three year old brother
sitting in the second row heard him say Jesus Christ he turned and said
"He swore Mom the minister swore
"Shh" said my mother
"He swore, he swore, he swore" said Wally
every effort to silence him only increasing his insistence and volume

Most fun that most of us, except my mother
ever had in church

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.

Sandi Hebley on What the Hell VillanelleJune 10, 2026
Had to go look up “villanelle.” 😏
Sandi Hebley on The AlbumsJune 6, 2026
💕 I love our old albums!
Sandi Hebley on JudyJune 1, 2026
😢 Hugs!
Kimberly Heinrich on The Other WellMay 31, 2026
Neil: THANK YOU for this!! Love it!! You are the best!!!💕💕
Sandi Hebley on Timmy’s Down the WellMay 29, 2026
🤗 Love this!

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 Memory Mother Music Nature Perspective Poetry Prairie Psychology Ranch Life Regret Religion sensuality Solitude Spring War Winter Wisdom

©2015 Neil Meili. All Right Reserved.

Theme Designed By ThemeVan | Powered by WordPress

Loading Comments...

Write a Comment...

Email

Name

Website