This Is Just to Say (transcript)

Lawrence Broch: I’m Lawrence Broch. This past season, I wrote for Ellen, before that I wrote for Roseanne for many years. I’m going to read two poems, the second one based on the first one. William Carlos Williams is a favorite of mine. In addition to being a great poet, he was also a doctor, and I like this poem because it’s beautiful but it’s amazingly simply. This is poem called “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

[laughter and applause.

This next poem is by Kenneth Koch who I like because he’s just so darn funny. This poem is called “Variations on a Theme by William Carlos Williams.”

[laughter throughout following poem]

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