This Is Just To Say

Last week I was catching up on the podcasts of This American Life that I had missed the last couple of weeks and one of the episodes contained this segment about the poem 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

And the guy who is on the show with the host, Ira Glass, hates this poem because it's one of those non-apology/apologies. In a sense, he commands forgiveness from his wife and shows no contrition. I just loved how much the poem stirred up that guy. You could really tell it bothered him. What was really great, however, was when they began to read listener submissions of their own "This Is Just To Say" poems. The one I have listed below is my favorite, not just because it's inappropriate, but the guy who did the reading of this poem does it to perfection. I mean, it's perfect perfect. Just so detached and so blasé about it (two great things about using blasé there - that's the first time I've used that word in my life and it's perfect for what I mean, and I had to do the html code for the accent mark).

What Can I Say?

At our wedding
I disappeared briefly
to have sex
with your sister
up against
the back of the porto-sands

What can I say?
the chardonnay
was so fresh and cold,

And, I,
so full of love
and a sense of family...

And I said
I'm sure one day
we'll laugh about this;

Well by one day,
I meant that day;
And by we,
I meant me;

And by laugh,
I meant laugh.

Poetry itself is awesome because it's so precise, but until I heard this guy do the reading I had kind of forgotten how important it is for it to be read aloud. That is just as much a part of what delivers the message and feeling. That's why poetry is so cool.