Poems on Nature or the Seasons
Spring Has Sprung
It is St David’s Day
And Spring has Sprung
According to the Metro Men
The real Spring will not be long
There’s a brightness in the air
And lightness in the sky
From long winter sleep
Dormant animals arise
All of life gradually stirs
To face the livening world
Shake off somnumbulance
Deep wrinkles are unfurled
Awake once more
Uncoiled the living spring
Rejoicing in creation
My heart truly sings
Ken Fisher
Shrove Tuesday 2013
What has been spoke
Might well have been woke!
This is the day when we should confess all our sins
And thus duly shriven a new chapter begins
We must be open and honest in making confession
Pay our due penance and receive absolution
I fear that only those who are faithful and devout
Are willing and eager on their vices to speak out
After all, until recently, the sins of past days
Would hardly an eyebrow nowadays raise!
But that does not mean that a little reflection
Would make it clear we have not reached perfection
And taking the time to resolve to be better
Will not result in our pleasures being totally fettered
While on self-improvement we should contemplate
A little sweetener for all, we might advocate
And as Shrove Tuesday stands at the gate of Lent
We might find some feasting for fasting is quite convenient
So let’s have a party with pancakes galore
Bring out all the goodies we have in our store
Put deadly sins behind – except perhaps gluttony
And cover those pancakes with sweet oceans of honey
But in this age be careful of what is spoke
Lest all our proclamations my be classed as woke
Think carerfully of every word and every earnest sentence
While chewing on our pancakes there be no need for repentence!
Ken Fisher
Advent Calendar Makeover 2022
Have you noticed how the Advent Calendar
Has evolved?
Less traditional ‘nativity’
Now involved
Gone are the shepherds
And the sheep
Of the Wise Men
Not a peep
Mary & Joseph gone A W A L
Baby Jesus escaped the stall
Even that twinkling star
No longer seen afar
The modern calendar you will discover
Given a radical makeover
Bethlehem now rarely features
Behind the doors quite different creatures
Each day your taste buds stimulated
Your sweet longings thus are sated
Miniature morsels in confection
Cheeses wrapped into perfection
Jewelled trinkets for the rich
Despite the cost, seem rather kitsch
Wine and spirits for the tippler
Mini biros for the scribbler
For those concerned about their looks
Opening doors in tenterhooks
May find something quite prosthetic
Amidst offerings cosmetic
And so on it goes, those daily treats
From micro gifts to tasty sweets
Until at last on Christmas day
We gasp at this endless array
And then we ask
What’s this all about?
Amidst cheap goodies
Don’t shut love out
Ken Fisher
Clocks Go Back Oct 2022
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 we’ve been distracted by extensive politicking
Let’s hope that none of this has stopped our clocks from ticking
Although the shadows lengthen we hope not so our mood
A new regime in Crown and Government may yet still do us good
The cost of living spirals and interest rates too high
Not easy to accept all this with a resignation sigh
But let’s not in the gloom get overly depressed
Why not pretend the future promises the best!
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
Autumn Equinox 2022
This astronomical event occurs twice a year
When the plane of the Earth’s equator
Passes through the centre of the Sun
On this day the Sun shines directly on the equator
And day and night are approximately equal
Today is the Autumnal Equinox 2022
And our minds look back to warm summer days
And forward, with some foreboding, to approaching winter
And we are happy to say, for now, not yet!
An Equinox is perhaps a good time to reflect
On all that has been good in life
To give thanks for many blessings
For holidays, and travel, and time for relaxation
As the tint of the leaves turns and they begin
To flutter down to form an ochre carpet
Like the lowering of a flag at the end of a parade
We realise that gradual change must come
But shortening days and lengthening nights
Need not bring somber thoughts
Or fears of nocturnal terrors
‘Cause winter brings its own special charms
Family gatherings round the ‘hearth’
Bonfires and fireworks displays
Trudging home through deepening snow
To celebrate Christmas with those we love
And so we acknowledge the endless
Progression of the calendar
Through equinox to solstice
And solstice to equinox,
And again
An unending gyration
This year things seem a little different
We seem to be emerging from Covid
Although not perhaps completely free
And we are still mourning for the loss
of our beloved Queen
And the Ukrainian War rumbles ominously
in all our minds
But yet we would remain hopeful
Just as the Earth progresses in its orbit around the Sun
As each season brings its own mood and tenor
Let hope remain, the best is yet to come
Ken Fisher
Apple
A Many Splendoured Thing
Thoughts about the Apple
Adam’s Apple – was that his downfall
Or was that Newton’s idea?
The Apple of his Eye – not a Crab
But a Golden Delicious
Don’t write off the whole barrel
Because of one bad Apple
The American Dream of Apple Pie
Blue Jeans and Chevrolet
It’s not Covid that keeps the Doctor away
It’s an Apple a Day
But in today’s world it is not the fruit we think of
But the iPhone, iPad, and iMac, Mackintosh’s iconic Apples
And of course, we cross the pond
To reach The Big Apple where Liberty welcomes us
Solomon pleaded –
Refresh me with Apples!
[Song of Solomon Ch2 V5]
Ken Fisher
[Cooking Apples from Mrs Fisher’s Allotment]
Perplexing Maze
Maze at Doxford Hall Hotel, Northumberland
Do you feel life’s progress can resemble a maze?
Unsure which way to turn, north, south, east or west
The choice of direction may us easily faze
Left or right, fore or aft, which may be best?
Mazes present problems which must be resolved
At every junction we are forced to make a decision
At turning points our sense of direction must be involved
Then for wrong turns and dead ends we must make correction
Of course there may come a time after many attempts
When we feel this labyrinth has got us beaten
Our earlier shifts of direction we may now regret
And those wrong choices we kept on repeating
In the end all we want is to be liberated
From the hedge barriers which so tightly constrain
And all the false hopes that have left us frustrated
At last to escape to open ground again
Ken Fisher
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
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
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
Summer Solstice 2022
A glimpse of sunshine warms our heart
Flowers and leaves reflect the light
The gentle rays caress our brow
Our lips widen with a smile
For now the daytime stretches out
Filling each hour with gentle light
Dark days of winter long forgot
We rejoice in life outdoors
From this ‘crows nest’ of the year
We scan the horizon fore and aft
Behind, long hours of winter gloom
Then spring pregnant with promise
Ahead the prospect of summer warmth
And autumn’s gold and russet tints
But winter’s spectre lurks beyond
Vaguely threatening summer’s calm
Ken Fisher
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
thebardofkelvindale 