Rumsfeld the poet

[cliss]

Yes, you can now buy his book of poetry. From Amazon at $10.36.

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld publishes poetry.

<snip>
Until now, the secretary's poetry has found only a small and skeptical audience: the Pentagon press corps. Every day, Rumsfeld regales reporters with his jazzy, impromptu riffs. Few of them seem to appreciate it.

<snip>
But we should all be listening. Rumsfeld's poetry is paradoxical: it uses playful language to address the most somber subjects: war, terrorism, mortality. Much of it is about indirection and evasion: he never faces his subjects head on but weaves away, letting inversions and repetitions confuse and beguile. His work, with its dedication to the fractured rhythms of the plainspoken vernacular...
<snip>

Here's an example of his poetry:

A CONFESSION
Once in a while,
I'm standing here, doing something.
And I think,
"What in the world am I doing here?"
It's a big surprise.

Lots of others to look at. http://www.slate.msn.com/id/2081042

I have no comment. I'm just -- speechless.

[gWbush is Mabus]

1. this is classic

lol

[mumon]

2. this was previously published in Harper's

great magazine.

[ewagner]

3. I think this qualifies for a

:wtf:

[StopTheMorans]

4. I've seen some of it before

and it is horrible, incoherent babble.

[latebloomer]

5. He's a poet?

Ahh, such a sensitive soul!

Barf!!!

[Iris]

6. "jazzy, impromtu riffs"?

I'll believe it when I see it.

[Javneh]

7. Rummy's Haiku

I hope I have the form correct (5,7,5?)


United Nations
We called the irrelevant
Now we come begging

[Javneh]

8. or perhaps

United Nations
We called them irrelevant
We're in deep shit now

[noiretextatique]

9. i am speechless also

just sounds like bs doublespeak to me.

[frylock]

10. uhhhhhhhhhhh.. folks. this is parody.

they've taken excerpts of the nonsensical ramblings of Dr. Death, and put them in the form of poetry. This is freakin genius!! Don't y'all remember this little gem:


The Unknown

As we know,
There are known knowns.
There are things we know we know.
We also know
There are known unknowns.
That is to say
We know there are some things
We do not know.
But there are also unknown unknowns,
The ones we don't know
We don't know.

—Feb. 12, 2002, Department of Defense news briefing

[thebigidea]

11. yeah, done by the guy who did the same with Phil Rizutto (sic)

though I feel kinda disgruntled, since I broke up Rumsfeld's lines into verse years ago.

(darn!)

and used Known Unknowns in a song:
http://www.terminalproduct.com/donnierumsfeld.mp3
http://www.terminalproduct.com/rumsferatu.rm

what will I do when Rummy slithers back into his private sector hidey-hole? Probably laugh for a very long time.

[noiretextatique]

12. yeah, i got that it was parody

it's just amazing how little he actually says using all those words. i wonder if being inarticulate is a requirement to work for BFEE :shrug: