86. This is just to say...

Today's poetry group prompt involved parodying an existing poem. One of the examples was William Carlos William's "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 here's a representative parody:

Variations on a Theme

Kenneth Koch

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

We laughed at the hollyhocks together
and then I sprayed them with lye.
Forgive me. I simply do not know what I am doing.

3

I gave away the money that you had been saving to live on for the next ten years.
The man who asked for it was shabby
and the firm March wind on the porch was so juicy and cold.

4

Last evening we went dancing and I broke your leg.
Forgive me. I was clumsy and
I wanted you here in the wards, where I am the doctor!

Our prompter today, Karla, also mentioned that way back when, Garrison Keillor hosted the poet Billy Collins on his Prairie Home Companion, and they had fun with this very same poem. Here is one of the some thirty-four parodies they offered up:

BC: Listen to this poem—

I stand by the window,
Listening to dogs
Barking in the cold rain
That falls like vinegar.
A brown leaf reminds me of my grandmother.
And eating gooseberries in the Piazza Navona
That summer of our first love.

—It's a poem written by a computer!

GK: How can you tell?

BC: By the little sprocket holes on both sides.

(Mind you, this was performed in 2002. But still: AI anyone?)

It (by which I mean WCW's original) is a perfect poem, really. Parody it all you like—you can't defeat it.

But finally, here's a short film about Williams (1883–1963). You really can't help but love him. At least, I can't.