This Is Just To Say (William Carlos Williams)

Sure, I like this poem, but really I love the poem that is a variation on this theme, that I will hopefully find and talk about tomorrow. But before I get to that one, I must talk about this original. I think I like William Carlos Williams because he boils down big, big ideas into a single example using concrete language.

What I love about this poem is that it is so simple. It seems as though this was the hastily written apology scribbled on scratch paper--perhaps the back of a receipt--and stuck to the front of the fridge. But in that haste, poetry emerges: "so sweet/and so cold".

It starts with a single fact. The plums that were there have been taken. N imagines the owner's intentions regarding the fruits. "and which/you were probably/saving for breakfast". N then describes why he has taken the plums. "Forgive me/they were delicious". He talks about how they filled a sense within him. "so sweet/and so cold"

Okay, so expand-->Things happen. Writers imagine how things came to be. Writers then act themselves; they write to fill a void either in themselves or in their world. All three of those together equal a poem. Or a story. Or a novel. Any act of creation, I'd think.

Favorite line: "Forgive me/they were delicious/so sweet/and so cold"