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    Pieces of Intelligence: The Existential Poetry of Donald H. Rumsfeld
    Pieces of Intelligence: The Existential Poetry of Donald H. Rumsfeld
    Pieces of Intelligence: The Existential Poetry of Donald H. Rumsfeld
    Ebook54 pages26 minutes

    Pieces of Intelligence: The Existential Poetry of Donald H. Rumsfeld

    By Hart Seely

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    About this ebook

    Donald Rumsfeld is not just a two-time Secretary of Defence, former CEO, former White House Chief of Staff, and the most outspoken and forceful civilian military leader in recent American history. He is also, intentionally or not, a poet. At last, the ubiquitous and at times unintelligible U.S. Secretary of Defence has been deciphered by humorist Hart Seely, who found that the rambling raconteur is best understood when set in verse. Seely uncovers zen poems and lyrics, haikus and sonnets and has plucked the golden apples from 'D.H.' Rumsfeld's tree to present over 100 hilarious gems drawn from Rummy's public statements. Whether you love him or hate him, they're irresistible.
    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.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherFree Press
    Release dateMay 11, 2010
    ISBN9780743258692
    Pieces of Intelligence: The Existential Poetry of Donald H. Rumsfeld
    Author

    Hart Seely

    Hart Seely is an award-winning reporter for the Syracuse Post-Standard. His humor and satire have appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, National Lampoon, and on National Public Radio. He is the editor of Pieces of Intelligence: The Existential Poetry of Donald H. Rumsfeld and coeditor (with Tom Peyer) of O Holy Cow! The Selected Verse of Phil Rizzuto. Seely lives in beautiful Syracuse, New York, with his wife and three children.

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    • 4/5
      Brilliant! You can't actually give stars to this guy. A peculiar eloquence descended upon him - spoke through him, as it were, like the wind sounding a set of wind chimes. Read Rumsfeld. He will take you to the edge of an abyss - blindfold. Seely, Rumsfeld's editor, deserves some credit too. But four stars only for Seely: he got confused over 'hoard' and 'horde'..
    • 4/5
      Brilliant! You can't actually give stars to this guy. A peculiar eloquence descended upon him - spoke through him, as it were, like the wind sounding a set of wind chimes. Read Rumsfeld. He will take you to the edge of an abyss - blindfold. Seely, Rumsfeld's editor, deserves some credit too. But four stars only for Seely: he got confused over 'hoard' and 'horde'..

    Book preview

    Pieces of Intelligence - Hart Seely

    Pieces of Intelligence

    The Existential Poetry of Donald H. Rumsfeld

    Hart Seely

    Mackays of Chatham Plc

    Simon & Schuster UK Ltd Africa House 64-78 Kingsway London WC2B 6AH

    www.SimonandSchuster.com

    2003 Hart Seely

    This edition first published in Great Britain by Simon & Schuster UK Ltd, 2003

    2003

    This edition first published in Great Britain by Simon & Schuster UK Ltd, 2003

    A Viacom Company

    Copyright © Hart Seely, 2003

    ‘The Unknown’, ‘The Glass Box’, ‘A Confession’, ‘Happenings’, ‘The Digital Revolution’, ‘The Situation’ and ‘Clarity’ copyright © Slate magazine, 2003. Used by permission.

    This book is copyright under the Berne Convention.

    No reproduction without permission.

    All rights reserved.

    The right of Hart Seely to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.

    1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

    Simon & Schuster UK Ltd

    Africa House

    64-78 Kingsway

    London WC2B 6AH

    www.simonsays.co.uk

    Simon & Schuster Australia Sydney

    A CIP catalogue record for this book is availabgle from the British Library

    ISBN 0-7432-5239-X

    ISBN 13 978-0-7432-5239-3

    eISBN 13 978-0-7432-5869-2

    Printed and bound in Great Britain by Mackays of Chatham Plc, Chatham, Kent

    Contents

    Introduction

    I War is Peace: The Zen Master Poet

    II Three Haiku

    III East is East and West is West, but in Private Conversations, They’re Really Behind Us: Twelve Sonnets

    IV A Rose is a Rose, Unless the President Says Otherwise: Lyrical Poems

    V Nine Poems on the Media

    VI Because I Could Not Stop for Death, He Kindly Stopped for Saddam: Free Verse

    VII Songs of Myself

    Introduction

    THE POETRY OF D. H. Rumsfeld (as he is known to the literary cognoscenti) demands to be read aloud. Like the epics of Homer, or modern African-American street poetry, Rumsfeld’s oeuvre originated as oral improvisation, initially heard only by hard-bitten reporters and round-the-clock viewers of C-SPAN. Unlike most modern poets, who closet themselves with pen in hand, Rumsfeld surrenders to his poetic muse when confronting the boom microphones and iron-willed interrogators of the Washington press corps. During news briefings and media interviews, Rumsfeld quietly

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