William Carlos Williams Was Right

I don't care if being included in every high school literature textbook makes it trite, but William Carlos Williams is right. Plum is a wonderful word. Thick, round, hollow but full; strong, but inviting. It belongs on the page of the dictionary where succotash, succuba, succulent, and succumb live, but it can't. It's own page isn't too bad... pluck, plump, and plunge follow it (but then there is plug-ugly and and plumb bob).

This Is Just To Say

I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the ice box

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold

- William Carlos Williams, 1962
(http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15535)