This Is Just To Say

[clyde_park]

There is a poem titled "This Is Just To Say" by William Carlos Williams and it goes like this...

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.

There are several interpretations of the poem. Most say it sounds like a note left on the kitchen table for someone. But all interpretations I've read seem to agree that the voice of the poem doesn't really feel sorry for eating the plums. He demands forgiveness, but then excuses himself by describing how wonderful the pilfered plums were.

It is apparently a running game among poets to write their own version of the poem. I guess it is also often used in poetry writing classes as a springboard for students to write their own version.

I haven't written a poem since college, but here is my version. The voice is equally unapolgetic which I think is the point...

"This Is Just To Say"
by Greg Bevier

When I hurled

that jagged shard of wood

in your direction

I didn't think

it would hit you

in the face.

I would ask you to

forgive me

but now

you are dead