Category Archives: Health and Wellbeing

This Sporting Life

This Sporting Life

If you’re not keen on sport
There’s nowhere to hide
Contests of all modes
On every side

England’s women footballers
Showed us the way
As in the Euros they
Did all others outplay

Now the Commonwealth Games
Showcasing sports of all kinds
In water, on track, on court
In teams, and solo, quite unconfined

Beach volleyball, judo, wrestling and squash
Marathon runners, sprinters at speed
Gymnastics, rugby, cricket and bowls
All demand that we should pay heed

Couch-potatoes now feeling quite overwhelmed
Seek shelter from this physical bonanza
Where can we find refuge
From this athletic extravaganza?

There is little doubt sport is a good thing
Boosting our health, promoting wellbeing
But with elite athletes we cannot compare
A more modest ambition is only fair

Ken Fisher

Heat Wave

Heat Wave

Dire warnings have been issued
Temperatures unprecedented
Desperate need to find some shade
By sun’s merciless rays tormented

It seems there may be no escape
From this mighty solar onslaught
Although Scotland’s hiding in the shade
From this not quite all-pervading sunspot!

Ken Fisher

Harvest Home

Harvest Home

My recent poem was in praise of the bean
But other fruits and veg ought to be seen
Raspberries, gooseberries, blackberries excel
But rhubarb and potatoes are there as well

Whatever your preference for what the earth yields
From tiny allotments to extensive fields
Praise for the harvest which all life sustains
And for the farmer and gardener the result of their pains

Ken Fisher

[Produce grown by B Fisher]

You Can’t Beat Beans!

You Can’t Beat Beans

Home grown Broad Beans

When it comes to beans there’s an infinite range
Up to four hundred some experts would claim
In all shapes and sizes and in every hue
Tasty to eat, great for  health too

There is cranberry, black bean and also chickpea
Cannellini, garbanzo, and pinto to see
Navy beans, fava beans, and of course soya
Nutritionists claim they’re all very good for ya

Beans also appear in a variety of shapes
Kidney shaped, globular, some quite elongate
From slim and narrow to really quite broad
Some appear bashed, regrettably flawed

Beans apparently are a class of legume
Without any doubt they are great to consume
Endless methods of cooking this ubiquitous food
Whatever the type they are sure to do good

So the message is clear you must beans explore
Their many virtues you should not ignore
You can’t beat beans is the greengrocer’s slogan
On your diet sheet give them rapid promotion

 

 

Ken Fisher

Hospitalisation (2)

Hospitalisation (2)

Return visits were anticipated
Anxiety not quite dissipated
Glasgow’s new Victoria ward
The best that science can afford

No major issues there detected
Somewhat perplexed but not dejected
Then to the QEUH for something more invasive
Surgeon’s pleas are quite persuasive

Three nights within this radiant star
Keyhole-type probes that go quite far
Kidney bypass now a stent
Blockage problem to prevent

Not yet quite clear of every doubt
But in due time I did checkout
The final verdict still awaited
But original plumbing reinstated!

 

Ken Fisher

To be read in conjunction with Hospitalisation  (see link)

Truth Decay

Truth Decay

It seems to me the current malaise of our day
A persistent invasion of Truth Decay
But the dental profession is quite impotent
To provide a cure for our predicament

You see Truth Decay is a virulent bug
There is no use just responding with a sigh or a shrug
This disease requires much more radical action
To prevent its spread throughout our nation

Truth Decay starts with little white lies
Inventive stories that we might devise
Sometimes involving exaggeration
Bending the truth or some obfuscation

But as the disease’s progress is unrelenting
The imagination continues inventing
And any true facts become quite obscure
Of reality we can no longer be sure

Pointing the finger may be irrelevant
But Truth Decay seems particularly prevalent
Among used car salesmen, and property dealers
Retailers of ‘snake oil’ and charismatic faith healers

But perhaps the prime example where Truth Decay abounds
Is displayed by politicians as they do their rounds
Promises of bounty from their cornucopia
Give them your vote in exchange for utopia

So my advice is don’t wait for a sixth monthly check-up
Dismiss all those claims, they are just a frame up
Expose all those charlatans who promote Truth Decay
On their false claims shine the bright light of day

Ken Fisher

See also: Post Truth Society

A Little Patch of Defiant Beauty

A Little Patch of Defiant Beauty

Amidst all the gloom and doom
Of a fretful world, fearful and overwrought
A corner of an urban garden
Yields a little patch of defiant beauty

When ugliness abounds
And peace seems to have defected
Wild flowers and elegant cultivars
Blend together to restore the mind to health

When hearts are heavy laden
With all pervasive angst
Nature’s nostrum, a ready elixir
Light and shade and colour bring relief

No matter what the trials that would assail
A small parcel of the earth grants its reward
Against the adversary of inward peace
This little patch of beauty remains defiant

Ken Fisher

The phrase ‘A little patch of defiant beauty’
is quoted from BBC Gardeners’ World June 22

 

The Next Big Thing

The Next Big Thing

Do you ever stop to consider
The next Big Thing in your life?
Be it joy all the way
Or trouble and strife

Perhaps you’re content
To let things take their course
Accept as they come
Events simply endorse

Or feel reassured
By having a plan
Just for next week
Or all of life’s span

Or are you happy-go-lucky
You can go with the flow
Even under dark shadows
You catch the rainbow

Well I have no prescription
As to what may be best
Quite free and easy
Or future obsessed

But whenever you discover
The next Big Thing you need face
Accept that’s just life
With resilience embrace

Ken Fisher

 

Hospitalisation

Hospitalisation

Unexpected hospitalisation
Two weeks of incarceration
Not readily anticipated
My mind profoundly agitated

The frailty of human flesh
Dark thoughts soon the mind depress
But initial pain was unremitting
All rational thought quickly outwitting

Ensconced within the institution
Trusting they can find solution
In the meantime to their regime submitting
My own impotence admitting

That behemoth
The NHS
Combining art and clever science
On which we patients place reliance

In due time a diagnosis
Less precise, ultimate prognosis
But in their nostrums I place trust
All settled life paths readjust

Remedies demanding my obedience
Accepting change as is expedient
Emerging from the mentoring ward
Coping strategies explored

Giving thanks for love and care
Determined not my soul despair
Together facing future days
Battling my vague malaise

Ken Fisher

The Statutory Presumption of Senility

The Statutory Presumption of Senility

I wonder what you think about old age?
Or rather the progressive on-set of age
Do you assume that it is a downward spiral
From rationality to senility

At what age do we observe such change?
Does the receipt of your pension
Herald the beginning of decrepitude
Or is the pension the springboard to freedom

None of this seems sensible
As for some, the planned-for receipt of the pension
Might happen in early middle age
For others, less fortunate, on the brink of their dotage!

In today’s world many cannot afford to retire
State Pension age stretches into the distance
Affordable mortgages need maximum tenure
Divorce, subsidising offspring and care in old age

All these make cosy retirement a modern-day chimera
Who can afford this nirvana?
An extra 25pence per week at age 80
Will hardly meet the challenge!

Senility is both triumph and defeat
Defeat because we can no longer cope
Triumph because it brings escape
Let the world take care of itself!

But let us not judge all those of mature years
As incapable or incompetent
They bring the accumulated wisdom of their age
And with luck, we might share in their inheritance

Ken Fisher

 

 

Breaking News

Breaking News

Breaking News
Two words we don’t want to hear
But cannot ignore

What now? We wonder
Are we not already punch-drunk
With the latest tidings
Of disaster, tragedy and death

Breaking News
Here we go again
As the little siren caption
Runs along the TV screen

Demanding our immediate attention
To some gut-wrenching catastrophe
Another addition to the stockpile
Of the world’s tribulations

Breaking News
Don’t they know we have enough
Trouble just coping with daily life?
It’s not that we just don’t care
We do – but how?

Breaking News
Perhaps the media moguls
Should be forced to ensure
There’s some good news too
Breaking News that won’t
Break our hearts

Ken Fisher

See also my poem: Unfettered Catastrophising

Andante

Andante

 

 

Andante – a moderately slow tempo
An easy walking pace
Relaxed, unhurried
You’re not in a race

We live life in a rush
Startled by the starter’s gun
Forward, ever onward
Always on the run

Why can’t we learn
It’s not a competition?
There is no prize
No quest for recognition

As in the fabulous tale
The Hare and the Tortoise
Hare defeated in the race
Opponent held his poise

So let us learn to keep
That even balanced tread
In all our daily doings
Its steady rhythm embed

Andante – like ticking of the clock
Slow but sure progress
Meet each daily challenge
While serenity possess

Ken Fisher