Maybe He Could Get the Poet Laureate Job

With Alberto Gonzales leaving, Washington gets a little less poetic.

The depth and grace of Gonzales' talent can be heard in how he modulates the cadence of the anaphoric "I do not recall"--a less gifted artist would have been content to let this become merely a catchy refrain. But Gonzales was not afraid to take risks as a poet, employing a subtle variatio, in which "I do not recall" becomes "I can't remember" becomes "I don't know" and returns with renewed forced--in an almost transcendent register--to "I do not recall." It has the rhythmic seductiveness of Gerard Manley Hopkins, coupled with the incisive brevity of early Ezra Pound.

And who can forget his prose poetry? The merest sample is enough to demonstrate its genius:

I am not aware that it certainly was in my mind a problem or basis to accept the recommendation that they be asked to leave.

In "Man Carrying Thing," Wallace Stevens wrote: "The poem must resist the intellegence almost successfully." Stevens, whose often abstruse lyricism is clearly an influence on Gonzales' work, is outstripped by the younger poet, who in this breathtaking passage resists the intelligence with utter success. The student surpasses the master.

But as much as Gonzales' work hearkens back to these poets of High Modernism, one can also see the influence of postmodernism in this creative auteur. One of the hallmarks of postmodernist literature is the transgression of generic boundaries between high and low culture. This embracing of so-called "low" genres can be best seen in Gonzales' work in the plot-heavy Padilla Affair.

Gonzales demonstrates his mastery of the thriller in the exciting last-minute plot twist, in which the prisoner is finally granted a civilian trial just as the story's chief antagonist, the justice system, is about to compel the Administration to adhere to the law of the land. This critic, for one, never saw it coming! A roller-coaster ride of adventure, from the first illegal detainment to the Constitution-defying denouement!

Goodbye, Alberto Gonzales. D.C. was never meant for one as beautiful as you.