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"After hearing Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld dress down the media at Pentagon press briefings, two San Francisco musicians came to an inevitable conclusion: his words simply must be set to chamber music.
"'The Poetry of Donald Rumsfeld and Other Fresh American Songs' includes 'The Unknown' from Rumsfeld's Feb. 12, 2003, briefing on the situation in Iraq:
"'As we know,
There are known knowns.
There are things we know we know.
We also know there are known unknowns ...'
"Now those words are lyrics sung by soprano Elender Wall, set to the lofty chords of composer and pianist Bryant Kong.
"Last year, journalist-humorist Hart Seely took selected Rumsfeld briefings and without changing a word, presented them in the form of free verse, sonnets and haiku in his book Pieces of Intelligence: The Existential Poetry of Donald H. Rumsfeld.
"Kong, who got permission to use Seely's work for his musical compositions, has considered whether the words of other top politicians might work as forms of art. He thinks President Bush's statements lack the necessary substance, while Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry would put people to sleep."
