Category Archives: Poems on the theme of Living our Lives

Poems that reflect aspects of thoughts and actions that will influence the living of our life

No Longer Give Your Life, but Live Your Life?

No Longer Give Your Life, but Live Your Life?

Whatever happened to the ethic of Service?
When did the prevailing mood change?
From the idea of giving your life for others
To living your life for yourself

The death of our Queen
Who exemplified a life of service,
Has prompted reflection
On how we see our lives today

Of course we are told in the
Gospel of Matthew to
Love your neighbour
As yourself

But perhaps we have
Soft-pedalled on the neighbour bit
And majored on the loving of self
The spirit of our age

The bookshops are full of
Manuals on self-help
How to get the best out of life
In health, wealth and self-satisfaction

Perhaps we expect someone else
To do the giving, the service for others
The Government, the NHS, Social service etc
But don’t ask me to volunteer – are you mad?

So where does that leave us?
Self-contained in our little bubble
Good-bye to giving, hello to living
But perhaps happiness may be discovered
In living through giving

Ken Fisher

Honest Doubt

Honest Doubt

 

A thought:
“RELIGION: Men despise religion, they hate it, and fear
that is is true”  BLAISE PASCAL [1623-1662]

Would that belief with all the heart
That faith would take the major part
No doubts evoke that it be fiction
Grim spectre of contradiction

Why should faith be so elusive?
At times conviction quite conclusive
At others, of any certainty devoid
Credence rarely unalloyed

Ambivalence yielding only anguish
In this tension the soul languish
Faith and doubt in opposition
Need hope in salvation avert perdition?

For those whose trust is resolute
Brook no questions, no dispute
Their creed for them is all sufficient
Safe with their loving God omniscient

Yet who would deem it cynicism
When intelligent scepticism
Decides it be a precondition
To weigh in the balance propositions

Study of God’s word the resolution?
Or merely leads to obfuscation
Religion ‘lite’ a better course
Freed from the wrath of sinner’s curse

And what of those of frail conviction
Beset by doubt and  contradiction?
For them, faith a prize not quite yet earned
Still in their heart wistfully yearned

 

 

Ken Fisher

Apple

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]

Rampaging Inflation

Rampaging Inflation

A new scourge seems to be afflicting our nation
In the form of renewed rampaging inflation
Apparently the worst for over forty years
Enough to engulf all our other deep fears

We thought that Covid was enough to try us
As we sought relief from that menacing virus
But now the challenge is spiralling prices
And nobody knows quite what to advise us

Energy costs are going through the roof
The high figures quoted sound like a spoof
But regrettably these numbers are not any joke
The prospects of payment are quite beyond hope

The weekly shop we can no longer afford
But rocketing prices just can’t be ignored
We will have to cut down and do something rash
Or without doubt we will soon run out of cash

Those little treats we will have to forego
Reduce our drinking, that will be a blow
But there is little doubt we must reduce our spend
A more frugal life is what we commend

So you must tighten your belt and learn to cut back
Let’s hope that employers don’t give you the sack
We must brace ourselves throughout the nation
If we are to survive this rampaging inflation

Ken Fisher

 

Inscrutable

Inscrutable

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The enigmatic pose
The impassive mind
The unknowable thoughts
The unfathomable depths
The impenetrable meaning
The inexplicable understanding
The unexpressive serenity

All these attributes
Displayed in one small (rather portly) frame

No warfare with the world
No conflict with oneself
No striving to achieve
No quest for success
No hiding from reality
No hostility to others
No internecine strife

Only peace and harmony
In a mind at ease

Ken Fisher

Contrast the above poem with Freak Out

Perplexing Maze

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

Pass-Remarkable

Pass-Remarkable

Have you noticed how some people are very pass-remarkable?
On whatever catches their attention they must have something to say
The clothes we are wearing, the books that we are reading
Into our topical discussion they must inveigh

These self-appointed experts never fail to comment
No restriction to the issues on which they pontificate
Their encyclopaedic knowledge is rapidly paraded
Erudition they feel compelled to demonstrate

Of course there is a risk that these pundits sometimes overlook
One of their hearers might actually know far more
And when they lay forth with the mantle of a guru
They are then perceived as a frivolous bore

On the other hand we sometimes meet the strong silent type
Each thought considered, every utterance measured
From their lips no unhurried remark will ever pass
Each precious nugget by the hearers to be treasured

So is there a happy medium, to comment or abstain?
There must be some conversation, some social intercourse
Afterall it’s speech which separates us from the beasts
By our friendly chatter our humanity we endorse

Ken Fisher

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

Dyscalculia

Dyscalculia

No doubt you have heard of dyslexia
But I doubt you know of dyscalculia
The former the scourge of the aspiring reader
The latter hinders any mathematical cheerleader

We are told to stop thinking that maths is quite scary
High intelligence needed for its mastery
The subject has been shrouded in a kind of mystique
Lesser mortals retiring in a fit of pique

Of course this suits those who find maths a cinch
No complex formula would ere make them flich
This allows them to take a superior stance
At our puerile attempts they just look askance

But the solution is not to simply give in
But start at the basics, that’s where to begin
With tiny steps the tough subject attack
Upwards and onwards, no glancing back

From simple arithmetic we might proceed
Not allowing problems progress to impede
Gradually attacking the language algebraic
Geometric shapes which are somewhat archaic

And so at last as our knowledge expands
We learn to tackle all the subject’s demands
Until all its mysteries we have expelled
Our dyscalculia completely dispelled

Ken Fisher

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

Mission Statement

Mission Statement

 

 

Catchy slogan
Or something more
Let’s you know
Our inner core
Defining the why, the who, the what
Who we are and what we’re not

Mission statements
Encapsulate our brand
In lucid terms
Use nothing grand
In simple claims
Divulge our aims

Mission statements need not only be
For mega-corporations
Multi-nationals
The United Nations
Charities can also find them useful
All should ensure that they are truthful

Churches try to be ‘missional’
Concerned for justice and compassion
Reaching out to those in need
Ensuring they receive their ration
Of the world’s bounty they deserve
Willing help without reserve

And what about an MS that is personal
Declaring my purposes and my goals?
A guiding principle to follow
My words and actions to control
Emblazoned in my life’s CV
Lived manifest for all to see

Ken Fisher