Wednesday, February 07, 2007

This is Just to Say

I spent the afternoon looking at woolgathering, the wonderful artblog of this lady that posts daily drawing/watercolors. Anyways, the warm homeyness of the images kept making me think of the William Carlos Williams poem "This Is Just To Say".

THIS IS JUST TO SAY

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


And that poem always makes me think of his wife's reply:


REPLY

Dear Bill: I've made a
couple of sandwiches for you.
In the ice-box you'll find
blue-berries—a cup of grapefruit
a glass of cold coffee.

On the stove is the tea-pot
with enough tea leaves
for you to make tea if you
prefer—Just light the gas—
boil the water and put it in the tea

Plenty of bread in the bread-box
and butter and eggs—
I didn't know just what to
make for you. Several people
called up about office hours—

See you later. Love. Floss.


I was trying to think why did that site make me think of the Williams poem and I realized that the watercolors reminded me of a animation made of the poem
"This Is Just To Say" that was part of the 'Voices & Visions' episode about William Carlos Williams. 'Voices & Visions' was a great PBS series on American poetry that I used to love watching as a kid and if I have any interest in Poetry at all a good 75% of it could be traced back to that series.

2 comments:

Bone said...

About a year ago, I wrote my own response:

You're right, Bill
those plums
would have made
a fine meal

or so I thought
when I bought
them
yesterday

And now
I am very hungry
you greedy mother
fucker


WCW is the shiznit.

tom nihilist said...

I got 'boned' twiced in one night, I feel like the prom queen!?!

yeah, Williams is one of my very favorites.