Perhaps some out there would be interested/amused by this?

Cheers,
Leona

New York Times
July 31, 2004
Sensing Political Crime Drives Him to Rhyme
By RANDY KENNEDY

Calvin Trillin's theory about poets is that most extended families produce
one.
<clipped stuff about his Dad's doggerel>
Mr. Trillin, 68, also inherited the rhyming gene and has put it to somewhat
more glamorous use writing weekly verse for The Nation magazine. But as he
points out at every opportunity, like a kind of Rodney Dangerfield routine,
there is just not a lucrative market for professional poesy in America these
days: His salary is $100 a poem, a rate that has not changed since he began
in 1990, despite a significant increase in the cost of living since then.

So when a collection of Mr. Trillin's best poems about the Bush
administration, called "Obliviously On He Sails: The Bush Administration in
Rhyme," was published in June by Random House, both author and publisher had
modest expectations. Mr. Trillin said he did not even ask about the size of
the printing. "I thought it would be embarrassing to know the answer," he
said. Then something happened that Mr. Trillin might have made up himself,
on one of his funnier days: He became a best-selling poet. The poetry
collection made its debut at No. 7 on the New York Times nonfiction
best-seller list on July 18, and will be No. 14 tomorrow. London King, a
spokeswoman for the publisher, said the book was in its seventh printing,
with 75,000 copies, not a big number for a best seller but a huge one for a
book of poetry, especially one categorized as nonfiction.

Poetry is hardly ever seen on the hardcover best-seller list. The last time
was in 2002, when three books by Mattie J. T. Stepanek, a young boy who
suffered from muscular dystrophy, were best sellers. But even famous poets
like Maya Angelou have a hard time getting poetry on the list; Ms. Angelou's
most successful sellers have been her books of essays and autobiographical
stories.

"I think a lot of people in America hear the words `rhyme' and `poetry' and
think it might as well be Canadian," said Mr. Trillin, who was interviewed
by phone while vacationing in Nova Scotia, where he noted with pride that
The Toronto Globe and Mail also employed what he called a "deadline poet"
like himself, named John Allemang.

Mr. Trillin said he was not sure that what he does could really be called
poetry. He certainly does not want to be mentioned in the same breath as Ms.
Angelou, though he did succeed, in the new poetry collection, in finding
decent rhymes not only for "taxes" (axis) but also for "Pentagon" (neocon)
and "Harvey Pitt" (unfit.) (Mr. Pitt resigned as the chairman of the
Securities and Exchange Commission in 2002 after heavy criticism of his
stewardship.)

While the poems are nearly all funny, what may have catapulted them onto the
best-seller list — especially as the presidential campaign heats up — is not
the humor but the undercurrent of sharp, uncharacteristic anger that runs
through many at the Bush administration's decision to go to war in Iraq.

Mr. Trillin said his most effective political stance, at least in verse, had
always been to make merciless fun of whoever was in power or even lurking
anywhere near it. And several poems in "Obliviously On He Sails" do spread
the sarcasm around, skewering Al Gore ("We now feel warm toward Albert
Gore/Who will not run in aughty-four"), Ralph Nader ("One comfort lasts, as
dreams of justice shatter:/ Ralph Nader said it really wouldn't matter") and
Senate Democrats ("Like doves afraid to coo./ So history will soon record/
This war as their war too.")

But he admitted that many poems excoriated the White House in a much angrier
tone than he has used before. "I don't usually get exactly angry about
politics," he said, but described hearing a news report on a car radio about
a young military helicopter pilot who was killed in the lead-up to the war.

"I was so saddened and so angry listening to that," he said. "I thought that
this is an awful sort of way to die and a crime."

Later, he said, he appeared on Charlie Rose's talk show to promote a food
book he had written but he mostly talked about his feelings about the war.
"I was a really bad dinner companion back then," he said. "It was all I
could talk about."

"I mean, I didn't approve of the invasion of Panama either," he added, "but
I thought it was funny." The poems about the Iraq war make it clear that he
thinks there is little humor to be found. In one responding to the news that
President Bush was not attending the funerals of soldiers killed in Iraq,
Mr. Trillin wrote:

At least there's no Bush eulogy
On why they had to die.
It's better that they're laid to rest
Without another lie.

The book is now popping up not only on the regular booksellers' Web sites
but also on ones that Mr. Trillin has never heard of, like
www.topplebush.com and www.onetermpresident.com, alongside political authors
like James Carville and Richard A. Clarke, the former White House
counterterrorism chief who is now a harsh critic of the administration.

Mr. Trillin said that as happy as he was with the book's sales — and with
getting to express his anger — he harbored no illusions that his verse was
any kind of "Fahrenheit 9/11," or a modern version of Swinburne that would
inflame political sensibilities.

"I think Linda Ronstadt could safely dedicate a song to me," he said, in his
trademark deadpan. "People might say, `Who?' but they wouldn't get up and
throw a drink at her."

_________________________________________________________________
It's fast, it's easy and it's free. Get MSN Messenger today!
http://www.msn.co.uk/messenger