# The Poetry of Donald Rumsfeld

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-poetry-of-donald-rumsfeld/380166>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [November 13, 2006, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-poetry-of-donald-rumsfeld/380166 "2006-11-13T00:17:21Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\
**Post date:** [November 13, 2006, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-poetry-of-donald-rumsfeld/380166/1 "2006-11-13T00:17:21Z")

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If only we had known this earlier! It seems we misinterpreted the guy from the get go.

I now feel I understand Rummy on such a deeper level…enjoy.

[open mike night?](http://www.slate.com/id/2081042/)

Hope the coding is ok-it’s been a while since I linked to anything here.

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**Author:** ![Mindfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mindfield/32/19759_2.png) [@Mindfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mindfield)\
**Post date:** [November 13, 2006, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-poetry-of-donald-rumsfeld/380166/2 "2006-11-13T00:22:41Z")

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I knew there were things about Rummy that I knew I knew, and some things I knew I didn’t know. However, I never knew there were things about Rummy that I didn’t know I didn’t know. You know?

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**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\
**Post date:** [November 13, 2006, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-poetry-of-donald-rumsfeld/380166/3 "2006-11-13T00:23:47Z")

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tsk, tsk, **Mindfield** --shape your post into the form of haiku, and then we’ll talk…  
I think I like the gas station poem best.

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**Author:** ![freckafree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/freckafree/32/3050_2.png) [@freckafree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/freckafree)\
**Post date:** [November 13, 2006, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-poetry-of-donald-rumsfeld/380166/4 "2006-11-13T01:05:34Z")

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I laughed very hard.  
What a pompous idiot.  
Known? Unknown? He’s gone.

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**Author:** ![Mindfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mindfield/32/19759_2.png) [@Mindfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mindfield)\
**Post date:** [November 13, 2006, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-poetry-of-donald-rumsfeld/380166/5 "2006-11-13T01:16:01Z")

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Maybe Rummy’s prose  
Would sound a bit better with  
A bongo player

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**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\
**Post date:** [November 13, 2006, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-poetry-of-donald-rumsfeld/380166/6 "2006-11-13T01:18:04Z")

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😛  
😃  
I will start my epic ode soon…Iraq as Xanadu?  
Nah…

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**Author:** ![zagloba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/977dab/32.png) [@zagloba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zagloba)\
**Post date:** [November 13, 2006, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-poetry-of-donald-rumsfeld/380166/7 "2006-11-13T04:53:53Z")

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Hart Seely actually published these poems in a small book, _Pieces of Intelligence: The Existential Poetry of Donald Rumsfeld_. A young composer and pianist set them to music as art songs, which he recorded with a soprano who’s the daughter of a friend of mine. The composer was [interviewed on NPR](http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1761585). You can listen to some of them on that page – I think they’re cleverly rendered.