<P> Harkins' original piece, originally written in prose format, started with the line: "Do not shed tears when I have gone but smile instead because I have lived ...". The more frequently used and widely published wording is "You can shed tears that she is gone or you can smile because she has lived ..." Other lines in the modern version parallel, but differ from, Harkins' original . It is not clear by whom the changes were made . </P> <P> In the early 1980s Harkins sent the piece, with other poems, to various magazines and poetry publishers, without any immediate success . Eventually it was published in a small anthology in 1999 . He later said: "I believe a copy of' Remember Me' was lying around in some publishers / poetry magazine office way back, someone picked it up and after reading through the piece found it appropriate for a funeral / message of condolence ." </P> <P> The verse was used by the family of Margaret, the Dowager Viscountess De L'Isle--the grandmother of royal confidante Tiggy Legge - Bourke--for her funeral in February 2002 . The Queen read the poem in the printed order of service, and was reportedly touched by its sentiments and "slightly upbeat tone". A Buckingham Palace spokesman said that the verse "very much reflected her thoughts on how the nation should celebrate the life of the Queen Mother . To move on ." The piece was published as the preface to the order of service for the Queen Mother's funeral in Westminster Abbey on 9 April 2002, with authorship stated as "Anonymous". </P> <P> According to a report in The Guardian: </P>

Poem called she is gone by david harkins