May 2022 – Page 3 – Neil Meili

Neil Meili

Zen Cowboy Poet & Freelance Philosopher

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Monthly Archives: May 2022

Athabasca

Audio Recordings, Environment, Nature, Travel / tagged Alberta, Climate Change, Global Warming, Mountains / May 11, 2022 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Along the Icefields Parkway
(prettiest road in the world)
winding from Lake Louise to Jasper
lies a glacier that feeds three oceans
(Atlantic, Pacific, and Arctic)

It takes a hundred years for a snowflake
falling on the top to make it to the bottom

Before a snowflake that falls today
finishes its journey the glacier may be gone

On the other side of the road in spring
water falls down a long face of rock
They call it the weeping wall
it may still be there

Alberta Air

Audio Recordings, Nature, Travel / May 10, 2022 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

The Faith of a Mustard Field

Audio Recordings, Farm / tagged Faith / May 9, 2022 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; Matthew 17:20
In the holy land of Saskatchewan
with the faith that’s needed to be a farmer

And wanting a level place to grow his crop
he moved all the mountains to Alberta

Mother’s Poem

Audio Recordings, Cattle, Family, Farm, Ranch Life, Relationships / May 8, 2022 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

The kitchen has always been the centre of the universe of any farm or ranch
She feeds their sleepy forms in morning clothes them for the cold or warm and prays them safe from harm
Looks out her window to the east where barn shadows and rolling hills greet them as they start their day
Men in firm direction to their work
children scattering to play

Then south across the lake to catch the water's mood foretelling wind or calm
Sometimes sees in morning mirages of cutbanks rising like mountains along the eastern shore
Or more directly to the south forms of her old neighbours homes rising and shimmering like memories of her youth
Seasons spiral out and in from this centre crocus and buttercups in the greening grass
cactus flowers and the joy of newborn calves
The growing season of the grain
and golden glory of a well stocked field
The shortening of days into winter and the every present stars joined by the dance of northern lights
Within each season she has watched the play of seasons of each day
men return from roundup children from their play

While she waits always at the centre to warm and love and feed
and safely tuck away

Mom and brother Wally in the ranch kitchen 1952

Mother’s 1930s

Audio Recordings, Family, Farm, Ranch Life / tagged Death, Fear, Great Depression / May 7, 2022 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Helplessly watching
her father dying by inches
and the farm blowing away
medical bill by dust storm

We always thought her fearful
we never thought to ask — Photo attribution: John Steinbeck

Mother on right, with her mother and sister Jean circa 1935

Stumbling to Jerusalem

Audio Recordings, Personal Growth, Poems about Poetry / May 6, 2022 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

If I had got it right where I was
I'd still be right where I was

All the had-it-mades that never made
as I failed my way from trade to trade

Yet here I am where I'm glad to be
with all mill down to poetry

The Busman’s Holiday

Audio Recordings, Farm, Flight, Personal Growth, Poems about Poetry, Ranch Life, Travel / tagged Writing / May 5, 2022 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

I think I’ve done it now
run out of places to hide
painted myself into a corner
surrounded on every side

For like every pilot
that ever learned to fly
I’ve got to help the captain
when I’m in the sky

And the time I’ve spent a thumbing
and a hauling heavy loads
links me with the Gypsies
that I meet along the roads

And if I look from side to side
at the land along the way
why the farmer and the rancher in me
wants to have its say

And if I should stop to rest
at an inn along the way
the years I’ve spent in
running one
with constant detail mars
my stay

If that wasn’t bad enough
now I’ve started out to write
and every shadow, thought,
or urge that comes to me
both day and night

has a message and a pull
to my soul and to my pen
so that I may never be
alone - or at rest again

Neighborly

Audio Recordings, Farm, Ranch Life, Relationships, Travel / May 3, 2022 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

On gravel roads
there are three tracks not four

Nobody gets to pass anybody
without noticing they're there

Courtesy and survival still
well entwined out where folks are few

Mud

Audio Recordings, Ranch Life, Remembering / tagged Childhood, Play, Spring / May 2, 2022 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

There ain't nothin like mud
for misry and fun
For curse deep
wheel to the axle
and rivers with sticks
and squish tween the toes
and fallen on top of
the one that just fell
and pants stiff to crackn
for you're half the way home
Grown ups are no fun

My Mayday Maypole Birthday

Audio Recordings, Family, Haiku / May 1, 2022 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

May children dance
laughter wraps with ribbons
spring opens heart

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Anonymous on Cowboys Will Be BoysMarch 6, 2025
I love this poem make more like it
Nancy Fierstien on Redwoods in the RainFebruary 27, 2025
Love, love, love, love, love this one Neil!
Neil on Dog YearsFebruary 22, 2025
Thanks Kim, Sometimes the poems seem to know. Sorry for your loss, Neil
Ken Christopher on Buddy TrainingFebruary 19, 2025
Yep, tough love
Kimberly Heinrich on Dog YearsFebruary 18, 2025
You could not possibly have known that today was the day that I had to have my beloved dog euthanized.…

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