{ William Carlos Williams: This Is Just To Say. }

[delga]

This Is Just To Say
by William Carlos Williams

I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold

--

An old favourite; also, a pre-cursor to the one I actually wanted to post.

Comments

[twincy.livejournal.com]

I was thinking about this poem earlier this week. Like you said: an old favourite. Last semester's lit tutor had a thing for Williams, so we read a LOT of his work that term, which I didn't mind at all (some of my classmates disagreed, lols).

Have you read the following parody/spoof? I'm not sure how I feel about it myself, but ... I enjoy it at times? (Feelings, why so complicated? Lols.)

Variations on a Theme by William Carlos Williams
Kenneth Koch

1
I chopped down the house that you had been saving to live in next summer.
I am sorry, but it was morning, and I had nothing to do
and its wooden beams were so inviting.

2
We laughed at the hollyhocks together
and then I sprayed them with lye.
Forgive me. I simply do not know what I am doing.

3
I gave away the money that you had been saving to live on for the next ten years.
The man who asked for it was shabby
and the firm March wind on the porch was so juicy and cold.

4
Last evening we went dancing and I broke your leg.
Forgive me. I was clumsy and
I wanted you here in the wards, where I am the doctor!

[delgaserasca.livejournal.com]

Hee, I have a thing for Williams, too. (The Red Wheelbarrow! Smashing!)

Ha, I've never read that. I like the idea, and it's pretty funny. But it also detracts a little, doesn't it? Hmm. (What I like about As Per Your Request is that it ends with the same sort of feeling as the Williams poem.)

Bookmarking!