Thanks to author and English professor Al Filreis for flagging up this piece of William Carlos Williams audio, in which he discusses his poem about plum thievery, "This is Just to Say", calling it – brilliantly – a "rape of the icebox".

"The woman who's there, with whom you're supposed to be in love and sometimes are … has these things made for supper and then you come along and raid it – why it's practically rape of the icebox, and so I think that's material for a poem," he says. It's worth listening to just for his matter of fact reading of the poem, if not for her "reply", which he says is "quite as good as this, a little more complex". I like it, especially the bit about how to make a cup of tea ("Just light the gas - / boil the water and put it in the tea").

I hadn't heard it before; it's thought that he took a note written by his wife and turned it into a poem.

"Dear Bill: I've made a
couple of sandwiches for you.
In the ice-box you'll find
blue-berries - a cup of grapefruit
a glass of cold coffee..."

And all that is a good excuse to reproduce "This is Just to Say". I've had to go and get some plums from the kitchen after reading it; unfortunately they were just on the table, not in the icebox (I don't have an icebox), but they were still delicious.

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.

Oh, and if that's left you hungry for more Williams, the ever-excellent Ubu.com has a superb archive of readings and interviews.