The Tao According to Calvin Coolidge

By Charles Rammelkamp

In fittingly understated language in a series of persona poems, Charles Rammelkamp tells the story of "Silent Cal" Calvin Coolidge. The Tao of Calvin Coolidge adheres to Wordsworth's stricture that poetry should be composed in the language of regular people. In doing so, Rammelkamp allows Coolidge the full measure of dignity that the man, and president, always strove for. This is a quietly eloquent tribute told from various points of view, so that we see him in full. The portrait depicts a man vibrantly alive, who heroically did not toot his own horn, as so many in power love to do. Walk with Calvin Coolidge, the man, the president, the loving father and husband. You'll enjoy the stroll.

-Robert Cooperman, author, In the Colorado Gold Fever Mountains, winner, The Colorado Book Award for Poetry

In Charles Rammelkamp's bold new collection, The Tao According to Calvin Coolidge, a minor American president takes center stage; his life is given the poetic charge of reclamation. Salient episodes from youth to old age are rendered - beyond the crucial biographical details - with a true depth of feeling, as in "The Locket," where the young Calvin, grieving his mother's untimely death, "took some of her hair, kept it in a locket, / shut up tight with his] sadness." Or when, as in the short poem "The Tao According to Cal," an older Calvin wonders "How can words ever spell out grief?," the sort of unanswerable question readers will recognize from their own lives.

-Jon Ballard, author, Possible Lives and Where It Hurts

In his iconic style, Charles Rammelkamp fleshes out the character of Calvin Coolidge with a dash of Taoist wisdom. "Those who know do not talk," we read of the often silent Coolidge. This masterful collection is a true yin and yang of love and loss, hope and heartbreak.

-Susan Montag, author, Finding the Way: A Tao for Down-to-Earth People and Jenny, 52

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1639807969
• ISBN13: 9781639807963
• Release Date: September 2025
• Publisher: Kelsay Books
• Length: 110 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.2" x 6.0" x 9.0"