Neil Meili

Zen Cowboy Poet & Freelance Philosopher

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Tag Archives: Settlers

Sodbusters

Audio Recordings, Farm, Ranch Life / tagged Displacement, First Nations, Foreclosure, Homesteading, Native American, Pioneers, Settlers, Work / March 14, 2025 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

We homestead in our bodies too - Bill Holm

You have to prove it up
build some shelter
plant some seed
or let the next guy try

You will turn up arrowheads
---- the bankers got them too

https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/dominion-lands-policy

North of the Medicine Line

Audio Recordings / tagged Addiction, Alcohol, Colonialism, History, Pioneers, Settlers / January 30, 2024 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Given the theory
with some evidence
that the natives of this land
had about the same tolerance
for alcohol as they had for smallpox
and because someone “knew better”
they were not allowed to buy it

If your hubby showed a weakness for drink
and a strong tendency to spend
the grocery money on the demon rum

You’d just go to the proper authorities
have him added to the Indian list
and barred from every bar

The Medicine Line refers to the 49th parallel and Fort Whoop-Up (pictured above) was a notorious trading post in the late 1800s.

The Lonely Men

Audio Recordings, Farm, Ranch Life / tagged Bachelors, Hardship, Pioneers, Saskatchewan, Settlers, Solitude / January 17, 2024 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Their little dark houses still dotted the prairie when I was growing up

They all seemed to cling to he soil as if their life force had all been used up in the long and difficult transplanting, and they could hang on but no longer grow
Or they stood alone surrounded by sadness and the small and smaller markers of what had fallen to the reaper's scythe

Their roots, loosened year after year
by the hot winds and the deep frosts became more and more brittle

Until one by one they broke off like tumbleweeds and were gone

1 Reply

Homesteaders’ Cabins

Audio Recordings, Farm, Ranch Life / tagged Pioneers, Prairie, Settlers / July 6, 2022 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Homesteaders' cabins
ghosts of courage and hope
wind through their ribs

The Lonely Men

Audio Recordings, Farm, Ranch Life / tagged Loneliness, Pioneers, Settlers / July 5, 2022 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Their little dark houses still dotted the prairie when I was growing up
They all seemed to cling to the soil as if their life force had all been used up in the long and difficult transplanting, and they could hold on but no longer grow
Or they stood alone and surrounded by sadness and the small and smaller markers of what had fallen to the reaper's scythe

Their roots, loosened year after year
by the hot winds and the deep frosts
became more and more brittle
Until one by one they broke off
like tumbleweeds
and were gone

Sons of the Pioneers

Audio Recordings, Farm, Ranch Life / tagged History, Pioneers, Settlers / July 4, 2022 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

A man in bronze behind a plow
tops a memorial to the settlers
in front of the fading church

The names of the men
and the years they arrived
my grandfather Emil among them
decorate the plaques below

Thistles catch for a moment and roll by

As nameless as the women
who worked side by side

Horizons Aren’t Equal Out Here

Audio Recordings, Farm, Ranch Life, Travel / tagged Pioneers, Settlers / July 3, 2022 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

The East is fine
for colour on the way to the barn
but by the time the chores are done it's gone

The rest of the day we watch the West

That's where the weather comes from

That's the direction the grandfathers faced
when they got this far and found
what they were looking for
or gave up
unhitched the horses
and sat down to watch the sun set

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Ken on MossbankMarch 23, 2025
Beautiful, that could go on a t-shirt
Nancy Fierstien on TroubledMarch 18, 2025
Keep writing, Neil. Keep writing and writing and writing…because you have so much tucked inside that is worth saying to…
Ken Christopher on Negative Space in New York CityMarch 17, 2025
Prairie boy in NYC
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!

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