Neil Meili

Zen Cowboy Poet & Freelance Philosopher

Skip to content

Home
Contact
Neil’s Books
Poems
Kind Words
A Neil a Day Poems

Tag Archives: Wheat

Swathing

Audio Recordings, Farm, Ranch Life / tagged Harvest, Nourishment, Pride, Satisfaction, Wheat, Work / November 14, 2024 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Turning for home at dusk
he takes a moment to look back in pride
at the last perfect swath among perfect swaths

Lines straight as Protestant prayer
overlapping and gold as Brunhilda's braids
floating on firm stubble cut at perfect length
to allow the prairie winds to blow above below
and dry the kernals in the holding heads
to Number 1 Northern, best wheat in the world

Tonight once more he'll fall asleep
counting loaves of bread instead of sheep

How the Tractor Engine

Audio Recordings, Farm, Ranch Life / tagged Harvest, Wheat / October 13, 2024 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

How the tractor engine sings
in a different key when the sun goes down

Like the stooking gets a little easier
when you've had a few pulls on the water bag

Things you wouldn't notice driving by
fast enough to see us still-life in the field

Threshing Time

Audio Recordings, Cowboy Poetry, Family, Farm, Nostalgia, Ranch Life / tagged Harvest, Wheat / October 12, 2024 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

I remember at Christmas getting a great threshing machine
a block of wood with wooden spools nailed to the side
but I loved it as I loved the threshing

All through the long summer days I would walk
the fields with my dog
At night my mother rubbed strong liniment on four year old
legs: growing pains she said, although one always hurt
more and didn’t seem to grow any faster

And the grain grew too, and passed me, and was higher
than I was. And then the harvest and the wonder of it falling
to the binder and the magic of the machine as it tied the
sheaves and ke-chunked them into the carrier

Then the stooking – little teepees covering the prairie again
and the golden warmth of everything

And the threshing machine; they wouldn’t let me too close;
it might eat me like it ate those sheaves and like the men
in the crew could eat, and they could eat
even when it rained

While I sat for hours nose to wet window
watching the great gray dinosaur
deep in the timeless mists

And hot clear windless days when everything sang and
the big belt slapped and the machine came to life again
and wagons were on both sides
and the big horses were standing strong and ready
and switching flies with dignity

The sun caught the arch or the long plume of straw and
the chaff lifting and the old hands fed the machine in a
sort of easy sweat-oiled rhyme and the new hands stood
on the sheaves they tried to lift each time

And the old hands laughed, and the new hands laughed
and they were men together

Long Hot Saskatchewan Summer Haiku 1

Audio Recordings, Farm, Haiku, Nature, Ranch Life / tagged Crops, Hay, Heat, Summer, Wheat / July 22, 2023 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Hay bales pile
the sun stays to watch
will evening come

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.

Ken Christopher on War WoundsNovember 12, 2024
So true, the barbed wire 👍🏼
Niece Karen on Quaking in the AtticOctober 23, 2024
Perfect metaphor - you captured me perfectly!
Ken Christopher on God is Getting OnOctober 22, 2024
Anger contained in love
Murray on Feels of the Farm – FlaxOctober 15, 2024
Now that's vintage knowledge Neil!!!! Hope you're feeling much better. Your poem would suggest you are!!
Ken Christopher on Fowl SupperSeptember 22, 2024
Wonderful poem Neil

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 Children Connection Covid19 Death Dogs Dreams Faith Family Farm Fear First Nations Friendship Gratitude Greece Grief Hope Horses Humor Love Mother Music Nature Poetry Politics Prairie Psychology Ranch Life Regret Religion sensuality Solitude Spring Voice Dialogue War Winter Wisdom

©2015 Neil Meili. All Right Reserved.

Theme Designed By ThemeVan | Powered by WordPress

Loading Comments...

Write a Comment...

Email

Name

Website