[Newspoetry] FW: The Poetry of D.H. Rumsfeld (fwd)

[s.mackenzie at utoronto.ca]

>The Poetry of D.H. Rumsfeld
>Recent works by the U.S. Secretary of Defense.
>By Hart Seely
>
>Until now, the Secretary's poetry has found only a small and skeptical 
>audience: the Pentagon press corps. Every day, Donald Rumsfeld regales 
>reporters with his jazzy, impromptu riffs. Few of them seem to appreciate
>it.
>
>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.
>
>The poems that follow are the exact words of the defense secretary, as 
>taken from the official transcripts on the Defense Department Web site 
><http://dod.gov/> .
>
>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
>
>
>Glass Box
>
>You know, it's the old glass box at the-
>At the gas station,
>Where you're using those little things
>Trying to pick up the prize,
>And you can't find it.
>It's-
>And it's all these arms are going down in there,
>And so you keep dropping it
>And picking it up again and moving it,
>But-
>Some of you are probably too young to remember those-
>Those glass boxes,
>But-
>But they used to have them
>At all the gas stations
>When I was a kid.
>-Dec. 6, 2001, Department of Defense news briefing
>
>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.
>-May 16, 2001, interview with the New York Times
>
>Happenings
>
>You're going to be told lots of things.
>You get told things every day that don't happen.
>It doesn't seem to bother people, they don't-
>It's printed in the press.
>The world thinks all these things happen.
>They never happened.
>Everyone's so eager to get the story
>Before in fact the story's there
>That the world is constantly being fed
>Things that haven't happened.
>All I can tell you is,
>It hasn't happened.
>It's going to happen.
>-Feb. 28, 2003, Department of Defense briefing
>
>The Digital Revolution
>
>Oh my goodness gracious,
>What you can buy off the Internet
>In terms of overhead photography!
>A trained ape can know an awful lot
>Of what is going on in this world,
>Just by punching on his mouse
>For a relatively modest cost!
>-June 9, 2001, following European trip
>
>The Situation
>
>Things will not be necessarily continuous.
>The fact that they are something other than perfectly continuous Ought not 
>to be characterized as a pause. There will be some things that people will 
>see. There will be some things that people won't see. And life goes on. 
>-Oct. 12, 2001, Department of Defense news briefing
>
>Clarity
>
>I think what you'll find,
>I think what you'll find is,
>Whatever it is we do substantively,
>There will be near-perfect clarity
>               As to what it is.
>And it will be known,
>And it will be known to the Congress,
>And it will be known to you,
>Probably before we decide it,
>                But it will be known.
>-Feb. 28, 2003, Department of Defense briefing
>
>

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