Neil Meili

Zen Cowboy Poet & Freelance Philosopher

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Tag Archives: Education

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

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

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

Pere’s Rodeo

Audio Recordings / tagged Athol Murray College of Notre Dame, Classics, Education, Learning, Parthenon Frieze, Passion, Teacher / May 18, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Horses racing around the Acropolis
brought Pere's blood to boiling

Students freezing in Lane Hall
heard horses above their heads
from another kind of frieze

Warming blood with history
less expensive than burning coal

Click here to learn more about Lane Hall and Pere Athol Murray from one of his students

Teacher (In Defence of Schoolboy Crushes)

Audio Recordings, Relationships, Remembering / tagged Childhood, Education / June 21, 2024 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

She was my teacher in grade four
I fell in love for evermore

Not a love I could express
though with schoolwork might impress

And so I spent my nights and days
in search of learning and of praise

A flower opening to the light
in aching anguish and delight

Then she went and moved away
It seemed life ended on that day

Though looking back on that great year
not dimmed by time but made more clear

I see that ancient youthful yearning
remains of love of love and learning

Aunty High Over

Audio Recordings, Nostalgia, Remembering / tagged Childhood, Education, Fun, Games / June 19, 2024 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

You need a ball is all

and a schoolhouse
small enough to throw it over

There is the calling out
and then the throwing over
and the catching and the tagging
and the laughing, always the laughing

There were rules, you could look them up
they were too small a part to mention here

The one room schoolhouse north of Courval, Saskatchewan
attended by the author’s father and the author as well

Ethics Back Then

Audio Recordings, Family / tagged Education / June 17, 2024 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Work ethic was the job
of the father to model and teach

All other ethics
and heaven's rewards
were mother's to model and preach

How To Write Good

Audio Recordings, Poems about Poetry / tagged Education / February 28, 2024 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

(for Maia, age eleven)

Granddaughter I might say
read some Ernest Hemingway

A good place to start might be
"The Old Man and the Sea"

Watch how he draws arrows
pointing to an empty space
until a picture appears

If we're going to know it
you're going to have to show it

And if you want to say you're sad
don't say you're sad - that's bad

Try something like -

She came home after the spat
didn't even say hello to the cat
Threw herself down
and cried her way through
two
pillows
and a mattress
until the drops began to fall
on the head
of her sister in the lower bed

2 Replies

To That End

Audio Recordings, Poems about Poetry / tagged Art, Education, War / February 27, 2024 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

The war to end all wars
maintains that illusion for 20 years

The poems to end all wars
live longer but prevent no casualties

The war to end all poems
and the poems to end all poems
are still raging in every public school

How He Read Himself Right Off The Ranch

Audio Recordings, Farm, Personal Growth, Ranch Life / tagged Education / December 10, 2023 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

He’d had some teachers growing up
that opened some gates that never closed

so every time he took a load of cows
to town he brought back a load of books
and the ranch
got smaller as the world got bigger

When a horse takes to chewing
corral rails (folks call it cribbing)
you pretty much have to shoot him
or let him go

And that’s how he got away

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Sandi Hebley on Another for the CatApril 1, 2026
🤣🤣🤣
Eda Lishman on How I Lost My Faith – In PreachersMarch 3, 2026
An epic moment for seven year olds! Wow how many lessons can you have in one incident? And a few…
Nancy Fierstien on A Tear for the RichFebruary 23, 2026
Another gem worth it's weight in gold from you, Neil Meili!
Sandi Hebley on Lonely LightFebruary 12, 2026
How sweet!
Anonymous on CirclesJanuary 18, 2026
Both Gloria and I were touched by your poem. Congrats. Tom and Gloria

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