the powerful americans

Hilarious and startling. This book contains some real gems of what they call "found poetry," except it's all utterances from our Secretary of Defense. I admire Rumsfeld enormously, and his bizarre utterances have been turned into poetry through the inspiration of Hart Seely. It's just hard to believe these things were actually said. Gordon Lish must be green with envy. Take, for example, 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.

Another favorite is The End of the World:

Puffs of dust
End up crawling
Up your leg
And hitting your knee
Because it's,
There might be
As much as an inch
Or two or three.

Come on, the reviewers who sniped at this collection reek of partisanship. I can't recall any politician talking extemporaneously like Rumsfeld. This is unwittingly brilliant, hilarious stuff. Whether you like the current administration or not, this book is worth owning for the sheer incredulity it inspires.

I really enjoyed this book, which contains the poetic musings of our current Secretary of Defense. Portions of his speeches, interviews and press confereces are placed, verbatim, within the structure of sonnets, haikus and other poetic devices. The results are often hilarious. My only complaint is that sometimes, there isn't a meaningful mention of the context in which the words were spoken. I think this book illustrates the fact that if you talk long enough, you are eventually going to sound ridiculous. I think this book is appealing to readers of any political persuasion. It didn't seem partisan in any way.

Rumsfeld is brilliant.
Those who read too much into his digs, thinking him silly, are foolish.
Rummy is a master of the English Language and I LOVE it when he mentally bashes the liberal press with his genius, especially when they are unaware of the mental thrashing received.
Signed,
Charter member of Hillary's Far-RWC!