New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu has abandoned Daniel Thomas Moran, his pick for poet laureate, amid mounting criticism of the writer's work, including a suggestive poem about former US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the Guardian reports.
The poem, titled "White on Rice", appears in a 2007 collection called "The Book of Moran" which was published by Asinine Poetry, and, according to Slate, goes partly as follows:
"Condoleezza are we
not the lucky ones,
Happier than a
barrel of nuns.
Like impetuous kids
we would have our fun
In the lavatory
on Air Force One".
Other works by Moran featured on Asinine’s website include titles such as "A Sonnet for Our Lesbians in Orbit", "An Ode to Dame Edna", and "The Girls of Vancouver 2010", Slate notes.
The media outlet notes that Moran, a retired dentist and former poet laureate of Suffolk county, was initially chosen by Sununu himself despite not being recommended by the Poetry Society of New Hampshire, as is the usual selection process. The Society suggested a different candidate instead.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Moran has insisted that the poem in question is merely the "imagined musings of an adolescent crush" and described claims that his poetry is "sexually laced or misogynistic" as "nothing less than silly".