Like millions of others the Trust sends warmest congratulations to Her Majesty upon her 90th birthday.
We learned from an article in The Sunday Telegraph by Charlotte Runcie (#6079 on the family tree) that Carol Ann Duffy, the poet laureate had announced that she would not be writing a poem to mark the occasion. Consequently this Sunday paper ran a competition for readers to submit their own poems. The response was overwhelming, and a winner and 5 ‘highly commended’ were chosen. We reproduce below the winning entry entitled Monday Morning ER by Jenny Land but before doing so we want to quote the last 2 or 3 lines from two of those ‘highly commended’.
Francis Phillips closed his poem
The Coronation with:
My secret wish, which lasted many years:
To join those rolling ranks of grenadiers.
The last four lines of Jackie Wilkin’s poem, The Royal Lines of England were:
Bloodlines, chance and temperament
All meet in Queen and steed:
But on this 90th birthday, Ma’am,
Stamina trumps speed.
Charming and apposite don’t you think?
Monday Morning: ER
Forget the ermine, the polish and shine-
there she is as ever in sensible tweed,
resolutely pushing out of mind her restless horses,
the four corgis that need a tromp along
the burn through new June leaves-
you’d think more than six decades on
the ministers could revise their policies,
the officers dispatch each combat plane-
yet here we are living our arrowed days
through urban sprawl, through e-updates and floods,
knowing somewhere in a quiet room
we dreamed about in bookish childhood
the red box clicks open: our world resumes
afresh, anchored by that blue eyed gaze.
