http://www.slate.com/id/2201342/pagenum/all/#page_start

The Poetry of Sarah Palin

RECENT WORKS BY THE REPUBLICAN VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE.

By Hart Seely
Posted Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2008, at 1:25 PM ET

It’s been barely six weeks since the arctic-fresh voice of Alaskan poet Sarah Heath Palin burst upon the lower 48. In campaign interviews, the  governor, mother, and  maverick GOP vice presidential candidate has  chosen to bypass the media filter and speak directly  to fans  through  her intensely personal verses, spoken poems that  drill into the vagaries of  modern life as if they were oil deposits beneath a government-protected tundra.  

Thursday’s nationally televised debate with Democrat Joe Biden could give Palin the chance to cement her reputation as one of the country’s most innovative practitioners of what she calls “verbiage.”

The poems collected here were compiled verbatim from only three brief interviews. So just imagine the work Sarah Palin could produce over the next four (or eight) years.  

“On Good and Evil”

It is obvious to me  
Who the good guys are in this one
And who the bad guys are.  
The bad guys are the ones  
Who say Israel is a stinking corpse,  
And should be wiped off  
The face of the earth.  

That’s not a good guy.

(To K. Couric, CBS News,  Sept. 25, 2008)

 

“You Can’t Blink”

You can’t blink.  
You have to be wired  
In a way of being  
So committed to the mission,

The mission that we’re on,  
Reform of this country,  
And victory in the war,  
You can’t blink.

So I didn’t blink.

(To C. Gibson, ABC News,  Sept. 11, 2008)

“Haiku”  

These corporations.  
Today it was AIG,  
Important call, there.  

(To  S. Hannity, Fox News,  Sept. 18, 2008)

 

“Befoulers of the Verbiage”

It was an unfair attack on the verbiage
That Senator McCain chose to use,
Because the fundamentals,  
As he was having to explain afterwards,  
He means our workforce.
He means the ingenuity of the American.  
And of course that is strong,  
And that is the foundation of our economy.
So that was an unfair attack there,  
Again based on verbiage.

(To  S. Hannity, Fox News,  Sept. 18, 2008)

“Secret Conversation”

I asked President Karzai:  

“Is that what you are seeking, also?  
“That strategy that has worked in Iraq?  
“That John McCain had pushed for?  
“More troops?  
“A counterinsurgency strategy?”  

And he said, “Yes.”

(To K. Couric, CBS News,  Sept. 25, 2008)

“Outside”

I am a Washington outsider.  
I mean,  
Look at where you are.  
I’m a Washington outsider.

I do not have those allegiances  
To the power brokers,  
To the lobbyists.  
We need someone like that.

(To C. Gibson, ABC News,  Sept. 11, 2008)  

 

“On the Bailout”

Ultimately,  
What the bailout does  
Is help those who are concerned  
About the health care reform  
That is needed  
To help shore up our economy,  
Helping the—
It’s got to be all about job creation, too.

Shoring up our economy  
And putting it back on the right track.  
So health care reform  
And reducing taxes  
And reining in spending  
Has got to accompany tax reductions  
And tax relief for Americans.  
And trade.

We’ve got to see trade  
As opportunity  
Not as a competitive, scary thing.  
But one in five jobs  
Being created in the trade sector today,  
We’ve got to look at that  
As more opportunity.  
All those things.

(To K. Couric, CBS News,  Sept. 25, 2008)

 

“Challenge to a Cynic”

You are a cynic.  
Because show me where
I have ever said  
That there’s absolute proof  
That nothing that man
Has ever conducted  
Or engaged in,
Has had any effect,  
Or no effect,  
On climate change.

(To C. Gibson, ABC News,  Sept. 11, 2008)

 

“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)

 

“Small Mayors”

You know,  
Small mayors,  
Mayors of small towns—  
Quote, unquote—
They’re on the front lines.

(To  S. Hannity, Fox News,  Sept. 19, 2008)