Category Archives: Contemporary Issues

Poems about issues of the present day

Seriousness Can Be Overrated

Seriousness Can Be Overrated

Don’t take me too seriously
But I wonder if it’s worth
Pausing for a moment
To think seriously about
Seriousness?

Sometimes people are accused
Of not taking things seriously
Of never engaging with enough
Gravity or solemnity
On subjects that merit sober thought

We should guard against flippancy
And frivolity when the context or occasion
Demands due respect
Thus no telling of trivial jokes
In the midst of a funeral ovation

That said, is it not sometimes true
That pomposity masquerades as seriousness?
This tendency is sometimes illustrated
By lofty preachers menacing us with impending hell
Even politicians with empty promises of utopia

Of course life is serious
No use pretending otherwise
We need to earn a living
Find a home, fund a pension
Even extract some meaning out of it all!

But can seriousness be overrated?
Is there never any room for levity?
Can we somehow progress through life’s journey
Straddling earnestness and joviality
Sharing pain and gain in equal measure

As once John McEnroe so emphatically declared
“You can’t be serious!”
Perhaps, sometimes, neither should we

Ken Fisher

700

700

[The Bard of Kelvindale’s 700th Poem on this site]

Words and verses, most with rhymes
Usually with just four lines
The fruit of my poetic venture
Throughout the Bard’s six year tenure

No political point was e’er intended
No ideology have I defended
The project, the reader’s mind to stimulate
Perhaps even amuse and educate

If I have prompted cogitation
On themes worthy of consideration
On solid facts or some abstraction
That to me yields satisfaction

I hope there has not been too much repetition
On topics that might seem like obsession
Perhaps some issues became endemic
Thus the dominating pandemic

But overall I tried casting the net wide
And for this I take some pride
Within the ‘pages’ a range extensive
And of the ‘categories’ nothing offensive

So what is my plea to you that browse?
Let me still that curiosity arouse
Don’t just check the recent posts
Dig much deeper among the hosts

Anyway it is you dear reader who will decide
Perhaps daily life keeps you preoccupied
But if one a day you find you’re unencumbered
Delve in deep into my own Seven Hundred

Ken Fisher

See also each of these: Poetry & Poetics

Poetic Opacity (National Poetry Day 2019)

The Anatomy of Poetry

In Praise of Poetry

Obscurity Masquerading as Profundity

Subject to Availability

Subject to Availability

Some things are no longer readily available
And no matter how coveted or desirable
The pandemic introduced restriction
And we must curb unrestrained addiction

‘Subject to availability’ flashes on the screen
As we browse the on-line market scene
No longer be granted instant satisfaction
Disappointment and frustration our reaction

We are obsessed by anticipation
Like Pavlovian dogs yielding salivation
Lured by market sirens so seductive
Any inhibition appears obstructive

For far too long we have come to expect
Our requests no purveyor would reject
So unavailability seems a tame excuse
Our loyal patronage to refuse

But we must learn we have no divine right
To demand that what e’er looms into sight
Might immediately become our manifest possession
No excuse for futile reactive depression

Thus if the object of desire is pro tem unavailable
Or perhaps our aims be totally unachievable
Help us to accept the fact with equanimity
Restore our agitated mind to calm tranquillity

Ken Fisher

 

See also this Poem

T & C’s apply

 

Hope Remains

Hope Remains

[Following COP26 Glasgow 2021]

The pow wow’s over, they’ll stack the chairs away
The delegates in no time fly away
A triumph some optimists proclaim
Detractors say, just hang your face in shame

No doubt the future’s not secure
No final resolution for either rich or poor
But hope remains that progress will be made
Saving earth from flood and burning rays

Surely good will emanate from this convocation
No doubt limits to resolve of many nations
Yet our awareness raised as ne’er before
Greater determination than heretofore

No cries of triumph yet neither of despair
Let not pessimism good intent impair
Nor over optimism cause all to forget
The battle for the planet won not yet

Ken Fisher

See also my Poem:

COP26

 

Dum Spiro Spero

Dum Spiro Spero

[While I breathe I hope]

A somewhat sombre motto
But while we breathe we can indeed hope
Of course the concern for breath
Has never been far from our mind
Throughout the world-wide pandemic
And the need for hope has coloured
Our thinking and attitudes
But while maintaining breath is one thing
Maintaining hope is quite another
Mind you, without breath we have little hope
But without hope is breath worthwhile?
Yet while we breathe I am reminded
Of the positive attitude embodied
In the sentiment which has sustained us
Namely let’s keep Hoping, Helping and Hinging
Thegither!

Ken Fisher

See that poem here:

Hoping, Helping, and Hingin Thegither

 

 

 

Time is of the Essence 2021

Time is of the Essence 2021

[This poem, originally published in 2019, has been updated
to recognize the importance of time in relation to the COP26
Conference of the nations’ leaders in Glasgow November 2021]

Time is of the essence in our contract law
You can’t ignore its steady beat
Or the buyer might withdraw

Time matters when we make a point
Words can inflame or calm
Ill-timed words bound to disappoint

Time is the fourth dimension
Length, breadth and height the others
Time alone stretches our comprehension

Time of our life, sum of all our years
Because time is our life for sure
Present joys tinged with future fears?

Time for amendment of life as the Prayer Book says
The essence of our life measured in each moment
The story of that life the sum of all our days

And now in Glasgow city, in time for the leaders’ convocation
Our plea is that not mere words, but determined action
Might save this dear globe, our home and habitation

As the good and the great meet in this powerful congregation
We implore them to unite to redeem the planet’s future
Time truly of the essence, no time for prevarication

Ken Fisher

See also my Poem on COP26:  COP26

Clocks Go Back Oct 2021

Clocks Go Back Oct 2021

 

The days are getting shorter, the nights are drawing in
In no time at all we will arrive at Halloween
Darkness is descending, as we struggle through the gloom
Look out for the guisers draped in their costume

‘Ere we reach that ‘hallowed’ eve the clocks must be turned back
Between Saturday and Sunday an hour they give us back
For last Spring those same clocks were moved an hour forward
To rectify that change now the movement will be rearward

This year in Glasgow our minds have been distracted
To our city the whole world’s attention is attracted
COP26 will see global leaders now converge
We hope and pray that unity and accord will then emerge

As of Autumn tints and falling leaves we are made aware
Perhaps the commanders of the nations will ensure they all play fair
In their deliberations may they reach a just solution
To tackle rising tides, melting ice, and poisonous pollution

So as now nights darken may we accept the changing of the light
Brighter in the morning, then earlier dark at night
Nothing’s really changed, it’s ourselves who’ve played a trick
Tinkering with the clock hands but letting it still tick

So with the changing of the hour we revert to Greenwich Mean
British Summer Time left behind till Spring’s green shoots are seen
But at least we know now where we are, the timing quite official
No fiddling with the hours of day or night, no changes artificial

Ken Fisher

 

In relation to COP26 see my poem entitled: COP26

COP26

COP26

Civic Pride and Climate Prospects

The spotlight of the world is on us
Nations’ leaders great pow wow
Facing the looming crisis
Hope of deliverance, but we ask how?

With the passage of the years
Menacing threat draws ever near
Fire and flood and rising tides
And we reply – why should we fear?

Can’t we just kick the can
Down the old proverbial road?
Let the future generations
Fight the tide and bear the load

But that won’t do, our conscience says
Action now as ne’er before
Global strategy throughout this earth
If equilibrium we would restore

Let’s therefore hope the good and great
In this powerful congregation
Find unity of purpose and accord
Resolve and act for earth’s salvation

Thus may the Glasgow convocation
Begin to save this world that we must cherish
Like our own great city’s motto
May our globe then truly flourish

Ken Fisher

 

 

 

The Suit is an Endangered Garment

The Suit is an Endangered Garment

That favoured garb of office staff
Is now considered really naff
Formal dress is not required
Jeans and T-shirt more admired

In days of yore it was expected
Certain standards were respected
And suits were necessary attire
If approval you would acquire

But as office attendance has declined
For Zoom or Teams suits weren’t designed
Thus casual dress has been conceded
Smart formal suits no longer needed

It depends upon the organisation
And the degree of strong persuasion
But many firms allow casual wear
As long as clients it will not scare!

So all this has meant suits are endangered
Party dress or beachwear favoured
So perhaps this decline in things sartorial
Demands for the suit a two-piece memorial!

Ken Fisher

The Doctor Won’t see you Now

The Doctor Won’t See You Now

 

No more waiting full of tension
Filled with fear and apprehension
NHS is in a plight
No doctors looming into sight

Images on tiny screens
That’s the best that can be seen
Gone the old-style consultation
Spawning doubt and consternation

You may be thinking that’s unfair
What’s overtaken primary care?
Where once we could meet face to face
Sadly now that’s not the case

Of these awkward new restraints
There have been a few complaints
On symptoms they may not be deciding
Alas the medics have been hiding

They claim they’re doing the best they can
To uphold our treatment, that’s their plan
But we would rather meet in person
Before our ailment starts to worsen

Therefore let’s hope before too long
To the surgery we might go along
And the receptionist  cry out somehow
The Doctor indeed Will see you now!

 

Ken Fisher

Our World Our Future

Our World, Our Future

A poem written by my 11-year-old grandson DF

Smoke, children coughing,
People crying, water’s rising.
Pollution, many dying, others ill
Causing the icebergs to not keep still.
Fish being reeled in, like us
when world leaders tell us it’s OK to keep polluting.
Cars speeding at 100 miles per hour
Causing the animals to feel sour
Deforestation, trees fall like oxygen in our air.
And apes look agape
as their homes are destroyed by lumberjacks and foresters
Natural disasters, hurricanes taking your homes, fires taking
Lives.
But wait! I can hear an orchestra of bird song

Singing a song of hope
“We can still do this!”
If we stand together, raise our own voices and speak up –
“This is our world, our future!”

 

Telescope, Microscope, Horoscope

Telescope, Microscope, Horoscope

 

 

The telescope is a vital tool of cosmologists who would reach for the stars
The microscope the choice of technicians who peer nearer rather than far
The horoscope essential for astrologers predicting forward not back
These wizards are deft at navigating cryptic signs of the zodiac

All these devices are the stock in trade of those who would aim to shed light
On phenomena, not immediately clear to our ordinary sense of sight
The first two of these were designed by applying principles of unalloyed science
More mystical formulae the basis on which astrologers place their reliance

Mind you in earlier years astronomers and astrologers seemed to tread similar paths
But with the passage of time the former gained prestige by flaunting a knowledge of maths
In the meantime the microscope helped speed advances in biology, geology and chemistry
Its magnifying power revealed fine details which hitherto had been a dark mystery

What more can be said about these three types of scope – are they each of equal worth?
There is no dispute on the advances to which the telescope and microscope have given birth
But the dubious horoscope regularly gets an outing in much of our daily press
And there can be little doubt this pseudo-science can a credulous public impress

Ken Fisher