08th Oct 2008
Make the Pie Higher: Unintentional Poetry
When my wife and I were watching clips of Katie Couric and Sarah Palin, I commented that her responses were more like poetry than prose. They were non-linear, free association style riffs, and with her (affected?) midwestern lilt, it sounded like a spoken word performance.
Apparently I was not the only one who noticed. Slate writer Hart Seely added some line breaks to her quotes and came up with “The Poetry of Sara Palin”:
“On Reporters”
It’s funny that
A comment like that
Was kinda made to,
I don’t know,
You know …Reporters.
(To K. Couric, CBS News, Sept. 25, 2008)
It reminded me of an oldie but goodie, the George W. Bush quote poem I had hanging in my cubicle for some time. It still gives me joy to read, so forgive me for reproducing it here. This one is slightly different than the Sarah Palin poetry, in that it is a multitude of quotes that are rearranged to create the poetry. But each one has been verified.
MAKE THE PIE HIGHER
I think we all agree, the past is over.
This is still a dangerous world.
It’s a world of madmen and uncertainty
And potential mental losses.Rarely is the question asked
Is our children learning?
Will the highways of the Internet
Become more few?How many hands have I shaked?
They misunderestimate me.
I am a pitbull on the pantleg of opportunity.I know that the human being
And the fish can coexist.
Families is where our nation finds hope, where our wings take dream.Put food on your family!
Knock down the tollbooth!
Vulcanize society!
Make the pie higher!
Make the pie higher!
Indeed. Let’s make the pie higher.
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