Category Archives: Ideas

Poems about the world of ideas

Gotcha

Gotcha

That gotcha moment
When the radio host triumphantly
Traps a politician
By trawling up a quote where
He has now completely contradicted
His earlier recorded claims

That gotcha moment
When exaggerated advertising promises
About some wonder product
Or miracle cure
Are exposed as snake oil
A mere puff
By investigative journalism

That gotcha moment
When a two-timing husband
Comes out of a pub with his paramour
And unexpectedly bumps into
His daughter in the street
As she is returning from
The Brownies

That gotcha moment
When Amazon delivers
That awaited package to us
Which turns out to be
A cheap trinket
And not the anticipated
Wonder gizmo

That gotcha moment
When the press lifts the lid
On some long running scandal
Or conspiracy against the public
Which a heretofore pillar of society
Has perpetrated

Those gotcha moments
Facilitated by modern technology
Through the use of mobile data
Phone call history and activity
Monitoring.
Switch off to remain invisible!

But – perhaps the best gotcha moment
Is when it tumbles to us that there are times
When such an exposure of our own life
Might not easily withstand scrutiny
So others might think of us that this is
Their gotcha moment!

Ken Fisher

Walking the Dog – By Oliver Fisher

Walking The Dog

Her shaky hands grip  my lead and I can sense her nervous need.
I bark, but she is distracted. Hood up, eyes forward.
My owner reaches in her pocket and frantically opens one of her boxes.
Those black boxes control her actions and the white paper cylinders keep her distracted.
She does not look even though I bark. Hood up, eyes forward. She is blind.
I wonder, would she still take me out. In the rain and wind and snow.
If her need was not quite so
It seems as though she can not go an hour or so without that antidote.
I stare at my owner, it’s painful to watch and I do not understand
I bark again and this time she stops. She knows she should.
‘Run’ she says, but she’s been running too.
Click, click. It breaks me. It fixes her.
She drags, drags and drags again. My lead is short now, yet still she drags.
And once the ember finally dies and her hands stop shaking I see in her eyes.
My owner’s at ease once again. Until the next time I need walking.

Oliver Fisher

 

It’s Okay not to be Okay

It’s Okay not to be Okay

When the world expects to see you grin
And inside you are feeling grim
Remember there’s no obligation
That you must help to lift the nation

Even when others are on a high
And all you can do is simply sigh
You must be honest every day
It’s Okay not to be Okay

When we no longer can be  hearty
The life and soul of any party
It’s time for truth to be expressed
When sadly we just feel depressed

Too oft we think we must perform
Hold on to the expected norm
Our emoji must not frown
No-one wants us to be down

Why should we be so guilt ridden?
Darker moods from all be hidden
Simply ‘cause it won’t appeal
To be honest how we feel

So let toleration be expanded
As of our emotions we are candid
If right now we’re far from Okay
It is Okay for us to say

Ken Fisher

Remembrance 2020

Remembrance 2020

[Posted on Remembrance Sunday 2020
in an anxious yet hopeful world
facing huge challenges of political uncertainty,
threats from a global pandemic and climate change]

P1040594

Today is a time for remembering
Thinking back to those dark days of war
When life was uncertain for all
And for some, death was an imminent prospect

But few living today have much memory
Of the years of conflict when hostilities raged
And although warfare still encircles the world
Our experience of it is mediated by TV images

And yet we have an uncomfortable feeling
That despite efforts to unite the nations
There is a persistent climate of arm-wrestling
Between the great powers who eyeball each other

The Cold War brought with it the four-minute-warning
Not long to compose our minds for oblivion!
But presently, although we hope our future might stretch for decades,
We cannot quite eliminate the nagging uncertainty for our destiny

However, for today, we give thanks
For all those who bought our freedom
And pledge to strive to maintain
Such fragile peace as we possess

Ken Fisher

Moments

Moments

Existent in time
Indeterminate
Enjoy or endure
A fleeting pleasure, a pang of pain
Why can’t we live in them?
Instead of rushing headlong
Seize them, savour them, delight in them
Make the most of them
The sum of all those moments
Biography

Ken Fisher

Enough

Enough

 

Enough is enough, I hear you say
But what does Enough imply?
Perhaps we mean sufficiency
Or even over supply

But often we don’t have Enough
Of time or money or friends
We long for the gaps to be filled in
To our yearning bring an end

At other times we’ve had more than Enough
Of noisy neighbours, or other folks’ pets
Of people with strong political views
Or those who’ve not given up cigarettes

On a more serious note there are the poor of this earth
Who get nowhere near Enough food
In camps they live out their wretched lives
Hoping someone might do them some good

On the other hand there are those who have far more than Enough
Who despite all their excess of possessions
Don’t feel any need to divest themselves
Their own comfort their only obsession

Sometimes Enough is about how we behave
As when others we would dominate
Enough! you cry out, just tone it down
Won’t you please get out of my face?

So Enough is an interesting concept to define
At times a shortage, at others an over excess
It depends on what we consider Enough ought to be
And how much we already possess

Ken Fisher

Mythology and Reality

Mythology & Reality

Throughout history mankind has tried to make some sense
To tell the truth devoid of all pretence
Of how it all began from times primordial
In terms poetic or proverbial

Creation myths common and widespread
Arose from stirrings in the head
As humans exercised their mind
From whence came life and humankind?

How did it all begin they mused?
By divers notions thoughts confused
Who or what was the prime mover?
Their earnest hope this might discover

Each ancient civilisation in its time
Sought for some guide, some paradigm
By which they could make sense of their existence
And found in folk tales great persistence

Thus venerable beings the status of Gods attained
Over kingdoms and empires they did reign
Powers without end held in their hand
All lesser mortals subject to their command

Throughout the world creation myths evolved
The Greeks, Sumerian, Babylonian, Egyptian, Norse all involved
Chinese, Indian, African, indeed throughout the globe
These existential issues thinkers probed

Within the Judaeo-Christian tradition the Genesis story is foundational
In these hallowed verses on creation so inspirational
We are told of the uniqueness of God in creation
And the depth of man’s fall and need for salvation

These early Bible chapters allegorical
Whose language, revered and rhetorical
Mythical but for some quite literal
Formed the basis of their faith canonical

But how might myth and reality be reconciled?
Perhaps the modern mind by science beguiled
Need science and myth always stand in opposition?
Must one view dominate, the other concede submission

I think perhaps best not be too dogmatic
Neither sphere regarded epigrammatic
Let myth provide the nuanced view of history
Science bring reality to mystery

Ken Fisher

A Rock and A Hard Place

A Rock and a Hard Place

‘In Greek mythology, Homer’s Odyssey tells of Odysseus being
trapped between a treacherous whirlpool and cliff dwelling
man-eating monster’

I wonder if you feel you are trapped
By life’s forces been kidnapped
No clear road out, which way to turn?
Resolution you cannot discern

Prisoners all of this lock-down
Little wonder we wear a frown
Horizons mightily reduced
By isolation thus seduced

Would that we could break free
And from these bonds could flee
Casting aside all that would restrain
And liberty regain

But rocks are unforgiving
Hard places confine living
Acceptance we must learn
Our burdens must be borne

But time’s progress will bring change
Freedom for the cell exchange
Chastened by our plight
Emerge into brightening light

Ken Fisher

Post Truth Society

Post Truth Society

It has been claimed
That truth has gone
The victim of modern living
It no longer matters
What we say
The world will be forgiving

But not just in words
In actions too
In every task that we should do
With ease, who cares
We simply bluff
Our way right through

When truth takes flight
And fiction rules
No-one knows what to believe
No longer sure
Of falsity or verity
Duplicity designed to deceive

If truth is only relative
Dependent on the context
How then define propriety?
Fake news, white lies
Flights of fancy, the currency of
Our post truth society

And right now in politics
Where porky pies abound
Citizens stand aghast
As leaders’ breach their rules
And laymen ask by what right
Comes their right to govern?

Ken Fisher

Ken Fisher

Socrates & Dionysus

Socrates & Dionysus

The unexamined life is not worth living
Socrates

To make your life worth living
Let’s have it examined!
Put it to the test
An MOT about me

Check for Virtue
The greatest good in life
The best of all possessions
Happiness guaranteed!

But not quite
Poor Socrates
Indicted for corrupting youth
Exit by the Hemlock door

But for Dionysus no introspection
No MOT needed
The examined life just withers
Under the microscope

Living is life
And life is for living
Be released from the bondage
Of prudence, caution and temperance

So wherein lies the truth?
The philosophers’ favourite poser!
Don’t expect a simple answer
Just get a life – put the examination
On hold

Ken Fisher

Gossip

Gossip

Have you heard the latest…………..?
Wait until you hear this………………
Don’t you just love it
To hear something is amiss

Chimps indulge in grooming
To endear one to the other
Humans like to gossip
Telling tales of one another

The juiciest of gossip
Of faults and indiscretions
Of peccadillos, little lapses
The stuff of true confessions

It’s odd that gossip rarely
Compliments or praises
Says little of kindly deeds
Just scandal that amazes

Doubtless gossip has a purpose
That’s surely not malignant
And the hypocrite within us
Really ought not be indignant

I retail my tittle tattle
And you then reciprocate
Thus we bond together
As chimps might congregate

Ken Fisher

Unsuscribe

Unsubscribe

 

There is a new movie of this name
Which has rapidly shot to fame
It made me think of ‘unsubscribe’
Suggesting that I want to hide

Unsubscribe implies that we belong
And now want to escape from
Perhaps some ‘app’ we thought might do
To help explore a concept new

But as with many of these offers
We get deceived by what they proffer
The free version is a real temptation
Enticed to complete full registration

Then we find the basic model inadequate
To version two we must migrate
Alarmed to find the cost soon escalates
And we need to differentiate

If we take time to calculate
The annual charge a mighty rate
The benefits that would accrue
Far less than all that money due

So at that point if we are wise
Abort the process, unsubscribe
But then we seem to be ensnared
Making us feel really scared

But we must not be caught in a trap
By purveyors of this wondrous ‘app’
To escape, and from the deal thus flee
Hit unsubscribe to set you free!

 

Ken Fisher