DEADLINE POET: My Life as a Doggerelist...

DEADLINE POET: My Life as a Doggerelist by Calvin Trillin (Warner Books: $10.99; 196 pp.). Inspired by the antics of John Sununu, Calvin Trillin began writing verses about the news for the Nation in 1990. The collected poems recall the work of Ogden Nash, but a with political bite. When George Bush retired, Trillin wrote: “We wish you well. Just take your ease,/And never order Japanese./May your repose remain unblighted--/Unless of course you get indicted.” Trillin’s many fans will also enjoy his tongue-in-cheek accounts of the events that inspired his verses: Despite landmark arms-reduction treaties, “SDI lingered, like a dinner guest who hangs around after the party is over--and keeps eating.”