Indeed she is not. At least we all have death in common though, eh?
Off-prompt today, but will be writing a Blessing (after Jo Bell’s prompt) and a Welcome Poem (from NaPoWriMo’s prompt) for a thing I’m doing at Hyde Park Picture House next Sunday. Neither seemed quite right today…
For there was a little funeral, as you may have noticed or heard about (I did not want to bless Thatcher’s life or passing, nor welcome the funeral, really – I’m saving those for something else).
So I asked Google to write me a poem about it – taking the list of phrases it suggested after the beginnings of statements I put in, then giving it a title (well, two – like I always do). A kind of found techno-list poem. And the following is what Google wrote (with little or no editing – go do it yourself and check!)…
It’s no secret I’m not a fan of the late-Iron Lady’s politics, but I really didn’t edit this very much – but did ‘curate’ it – so of course I wouldn’t have gone for things that sounded too celebratory. There is little that is ‘neutral’. But I guess the title and search phrases (a bit e e cummings?) were just an experiment in seeing what kind of liturgy the internet would turn up.
Actually, I was pleased it ended on our commonality in death. As a Buddhist teacher friend of mine says about, well, many things: “She who has the most __________ [insert anything here], still dies.”
Google Search Suggestions on the Day of Thatcher’s Funeral
or, How Much / She Brought / What Were / Now / Tomorrow
How much
How much does a funeral cost
How much is my car worth
How much is child benefit
She brought
She brought me food
She brought the house down
She bought it
What were
What were the crusades
What were the jim crow laws
What were the nuremberg laws
What were the symptoms of the black death
What were they like
Now
Now we
Now we are free
Now we know
Now we comply
Tomorrow
Tomorrow we
Tomorrow we sail
Tomorrow we ride
Tomorrow we work
Tomorrow we die