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

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

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

 

 

 

Emotion’s Prisoner

Emotion’s Prisoner

By emotions do you feel imprisoned?
Those passions that incarcerate
Such impulses running uncontrolled
Peace of mind might liberate

Those thoughts that prompt rapid reaction
No time taken for reflection
Imagined threats to our esteem
Deserve greater circumspection

And anger, jealousy, disgust, frustration
All impose a custodial sentence
Paralysis denying mental freedom
Punishment demands repentance

But not all emotions would our soul confine
Love, joy, surprise, amusement, anticipation
Break the bonds, and lift the spirit
Bring blessings prompting acclamation

Sentiment, woven through the warp and weft of thinking
Emotion, hallmark of the human life
Feelings that govern every mood and action
Obsession in elation or in strife

From unwanted thought’s detention
Release our mind’s captivity
Float above preoccupation
Through serene passivity

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!”

 

SPAM

SPAM

[Not the Computer kind]

Not quite described as haute cuisine
In posh restaurants rarely seen
But for me spam’s still a tasty treat
And with all others can compete

It soon became the subject of much chatter
This Scientifically Processed Animal Matter
And despite this rather dubious name
Throughout the war it gained great fame

Jokes about spam were often harsh
As food they thought that it was trash
Now unwanted emails hit the bin
Like the contents of the square spam tin

Despite it all the spam sales grew
Its popularity they can’t subdue
Gaining a world-wide reputation
This porky dish devoured by  nations

The years saw varieties proliferate
As different flavours reached our plate
From classic spam to hot and spicy
Chorizo, Turkey, and Pumpkin pricey

Spam products offer versatility
Long shelf-life, affordability
It can be cooked in various ways
Round the world we sing its praise

Even today in supermarkets
This revered icon excels sales targets
So to all those food snobs disdaining spam
Stretch out your hand and grab a can

Ken Fisher

Face Recognition

Face Recognition

“I’ve grown accustomed to your face”
A famous line from My Fair Lady
You’re in my database
Quite sure, I don’t mean maybe

In the world of digital devices
Without shame or inhibition
Images captured of all shapes and sizes
Snared by face recognition

We’ve entered the realm of biometrics
Machines scanning every feature
Fresh-faced youth or ageing geriatric
It knows what kind of creature

Human faces are apparently
Tremendously diverse
No end to the variety
A featured universe

But how do I know it’s you?
By your familiar countenance
Even the mask I can see through
With one quick furtive glance

With its limitless expressions
From wide smile to harsh grimace
Signs of joy or dark depression
Unspoken on your face

To the world, what face do we display?
Threat or fear or love shining from our eyes
Ready to meet life come what may
Not hidden by disguise

Just as face recognition provides the key
Our devices to unlock
Thus the face I proclaim as me
All barriers might unblock

Ken Fisher

Carpet Slippers

Carpet Slippers

The Sixth Age of Man – “Shifts into lean and slippered pantaloon”
[Shakespeare]

Carpet slippers
Symbolic of age and increasing frailty
And why not?

Are feet not entitled to be cosseted
Those extremities petted and pampered?

After all they have supported us
All the day long of this troublous life
They have earned their reward

Carpet slippers – sometimes with Velcro fastening
Stigmatised as high fashion for the care home
The last stand of fragile feet

But isn’t this a bit unfair?
Slippers by definition
Can be slipped on and off

No wrestling with the intricasies of lace tying
At an unreachable distance
Easy access too for your friendly
Chiropodist or [modern] podiatrist

The raison d’etre of carpet slippers
Is to provide comfort
For the weary sole
A function they lovingly perform

But utility is not the only measure
Leather and different fabrics may be employed
And colour and style can enhance
Their otherwise drab image

So don’t be annoyed when younger relatives
Choose to select them as your number one
Christmas present

Be proud to wear your slippers
You won’t be carpeted for doing so!

Ken Fisher

 

 

 

 

Off to Yooni!

Off to Yooni!

Spare a thought for this year’s
Recruits to Higher Education
They are going off to Yooni
But are they really?

This year they may not
Be going off to anywhere
Or perhaps only for day-trips
A sort of discounted experience

But the young ones are not all snowflakes
Many are very resilient
And no doubt will make the best
Of what’s on offer – however convoluted

After all this is the high tech generation
Whose tiny fingers have been grafted on
To key-boards, Joy sticks and the mouse
Since infancy

So interfacing with on-line lectures
Should be almost instinctual
Zooming a doddle
Gaming in the blood

But how do you forge a relationship
With an algorithm?
What’s the required bandwidth
To cultivate human friendship?

I am not a robot – but I need to prove it
Coffee together in the common room
A pint in the union bar might be more
Evidence of our humanity

And all this ignores the enormity
Of the challenge of grasping new subjects
Unfamiliar landscapes, mountain climbing
Striving to ascend intellectual ladders

So we wish them well, all youz off to Yooni
Don’t let It beat you, whether your diet
Is to be blended or wholemeal
Swallow it – and don’t choke!

Ken Fisher

How Was Your Journey?

How Was Your Journey?

How was your journey? The poster asks
As we peep over those tiresome masks
The bus company bosses want to know
Were we happy as we come and go?

In the modern world customer satisfaction
Relates to passenger reaction
So we’re asked to tell them how we feel
Little joy or a splendid deal?

To let them know takes no time at all
Get on-line or give them a call
Did all go well as they expected?
Or little gripes have been detected

One wonders if they pay attention
Listening with apprehension
Do they consider our reply
With joyful cheer or passive sigh?

Perhaps that’s why so few respond
No energy to correspond
We accept the deal that is presented
Conditioned just to be contented

Ken Fisher

 

Anything to Declare?

Anything to Declare?

At Customs Desks there’s no evading
The essential interrogation
No bribery or glib persuasion
Averts our making declaration

Anything you need declare?
Uncompromising stark demand
Accompanied by a piercing stare
Authority’s dogged command

Not only when we’re on the move
Must we readily declare
All covertness remove
Honest intention thus laid bare

Need our life be so transparent
Others have no cause for doubt?
That our motives be apparent
Virtue evident throughout

Our words, our deeds, our whole demeanour
To the world a statement makes
Perceiving from our normal  manner
Judging whether true or fake

When we act as politician, evangelist
Or salesman trying to persuade
For that cause protagonist
Attempts your mistrust to evade

But sometimes there is contradiction
Between the image thus presented
The smiling face portrays a fiction
Concealment of the truth intended

What does your very life declare?
What is the essence that is you?
Perhaps the question’s quite unfair
You’re not a primate in the zoo!

Ken Fisher

Wheesht!

Wheesht!

Wheesht! A Scottish injunction urging silence
Wheesht! Sometimes colloquially expressed
As Haud yer Wheesht or hold your tongue!
It’s a verb, a noun, an interjection

How often have we wished that somebody
Would Wheest for a while?
The irritable baby
The whingeing toddler
The hectoring politician
The ranting preacher
The boring lecturer
The nagging wife
The bombastic father
The orgasmic cries of the sports commentator
The loud expressiveness of the over zealous actor

And it’s not only voices we wish would Wheesht
What about?
The thunderous traffic on a main highway
The cacophony of an orchestra wrestling with modern music
The defiant shriek of the flute bands of the Orange Walk
The throbbing of motor bikes at a veteran’s rally
The alarming siren sound of the ambulances and fire engines

But perhaps sometimes we would prefer the opposite
It’s not Wheesht we want it’s welcome sound of any kind
Like
The first words of an infant
The response of a person awakening from a coma
The “I do” at the altar on the Wedding Day
The let me help you – of a loving friend
The good news from a consultant after you MRI scan
The phone call to say – You’ve got the job!

Wheesht when you should but not for ever

Ken Fisher

Bubbles of Certainty

Bubbles of Certainty

 

Doubts assail the troubled mind
Yearns for peace, but cannot find
Longing for a calm safe place
Sheltered from life’s breakneck pace

Uncertainty at every turn
Disquietude we would spurn
Wrapped in our tight cocoon
Unperturbed in our lagoon

Bubbles help us be sure
Held within their round contours
What suddenly confronts our eyes
Heralds no menacing surprise

Bubbles exclude the unfamiliar
Challenges, threats or risks quite similar
Trapped amidst the commonplace
Enveloped in our own safe space

But could bubbles e’er be too restrictive?
Timorous living too prescriptive
Pierce the bubble’s protective skin
A life of freedom might begin