Dear Margaret
Published on Poetry24
Comments
As if there weren't lots of poor, disenfranchised people before Thatcher... 70s Britain was racist, bankrupt and squalid.
This poem gets better each time I read it. Superb.
Nah, she was all right really, just a little misguided perhaps.
Mind you, I suppose she did create the culture of greed and selfishness that we now endure, a culture that created the climate for the banking 'crisis' that the poor and disabled and over-bedroomed now have to pay for whilst the bankers who caused it get bonuses and tax breaks whilst the smug government squander £10m on a funeral; sure, she did all that but, come on, who amongst us hasn't done the same at some time?
Nah, salt of the earth she was. May the iron lady rust in peace.
Laura, you are a magnificent writer and performer of political poetry.
May you resist in peace.
Thanks to everyone for reading and commenting.
Poetry24 have chosen to publish this poem today of all days, and I'm feeling quite emotional about that as it goes. Feels like quite an honour.
http://poetry-24.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/dear-margaret.html
<Deleted User> (6315)
Mon 15th Apr 2013 21:32
Ahhh Laura..knew you would make it your own..and you have lady..x :) x
Chris put me on to reading this and I'm so glad he did.
Its brilliant true and poignant, Its written from true emotion and is unapologetic in its venom towards the injustices done.
Its a very honest and well written piece, we all see differently and all fell differently and maybe there is no 'THE TRUTH' only our own truth. if we speak our own truth we cannot be faulted as long as we are true to ourselves.
You have illustrated your truth in the style of a very skilled and gifted poet.
Well done, much respect for you
Ged X
I would really like to hear this performed. The feeling I have is more of sadness and despondency than enjoyment - but that is becomes it evokes so much that came to signify the Thatcher years and her legacy.
Obviously I didn't know about the personal, but the personal links entirely to the universal, because so many people suffered in related ways.
Clearly it is a very powerful piece.
I have spoken recently about personally preferring to attack Thatcher and Thatcherism on a non personal basis. I have preferred to attack the damage of policies and legacy alone.
But I have great sympathy for people who feel they wish to go further due to how they have been affected. I have a respect for people - for each individual and their personal wish and need to speak in their own language and on there own terms.
For this reason
I agree with the sentiments of your poem. Understand and feel - yes this is right to say this, even if it wouldn't be the way that maybe I could express myself.
Well written.
Best
Chris
<Deleted User> (4172)
Thu 11th Apr 2013 12:30
Enjoyed!
Thanks Mike
Brevity
If only it was pain perhaps
The grief would then be bearable
For I defended you once upon ago,
Now I’m deemed unstable,
Collective thought was neither
Gathered nor consulted during
Office hours whilst languishing in power,
Your dictatorship crippled my mind,
Now no longer able.
Those iambic pentameters,
Those words for words
And rhyme for rhyme are all
And all predictable,
But four years was all I had,
One term in office that created
Laws that even courts have found
Fallible.
I question you?
And all you are – for thatched
Be middle classes,
The poor returned to
Rot in states,
Making sure your status.
Four years old my son remains
Never grown and three foot tall
Is all I muster,
While reports declare the fatherless
A social service disaster.
A term became two,
Then three then…………..
……………all those years I missed,
All those years your power,
A child of yours I’ll always be,
But the child of mine,
Was brief.
Michael J Waite 24th March 2008.
I have the same experience Laura! Well said and this is just the tip of the rot she caused.
Nice one
Mike
Cheers fellas
There's plenty more could go in this, and I may well add more at some point. Her rejoicing in the burning and drowning of men, slander of Nelson Mandela...many more to add to the list.
Much later...just added a new line.
tony sheridan
Tue 9th Apr 2013 15:50
Well said Laura!! Take care, Tony.
Says it all Laura:(
Poignant & true, Laura. This media salivation is sickening when the toll of destruction and misery she oversaw is taken in the balance.
Ian
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Jon
Thu 25th Apr 2013 15:07
Hi Laura,
Very touching;the sixth stanza brought it all home for me mate,'for the ice and the mould inside every window'.Superb! Btw, cheers for 'two a.m.'comments.