Signed, Seely, Delivered

Perhaps you were too busy being consumed
by tales of impending doom spun during press conferences held with
former U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. Had you paid closer
attention, however, you would have noticed a delicate attention to
meter and philosophical meaning behind the words of the talking head—at
least according to the ears of local humorist and author Hart Seely. Noting the way Rummy’s political musings neatly fell into poetic forms, Seely published the 2003 collection Pieces of Intelligence: The Existential Poetry of Donald H. Rumsfeld (Simon & Schuster). In “A Confession,” for example, Rumsfeld declared (in a 2001 interview with The New York Times),
“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.” Seely will
read from his latest works, Mrs. Goose Goes to Washington (Simon & Schuster) and O Holy Cow: The Selected Verse of Phil Rizzuto (HarperCollins) and sign books at the Onondaga Free Library, 4840 W. Seneca Turnpike, on Wednesday, April 9, 7 p.m. Admission is free. For more information, call 492-1727.