Let me just say - William Carlos Williams and Wendell Berry

I love the word just. It’s the word I use when I’m explaining something I still haven’t figured out. It’s the word I use when I don’t want to come off as the b-word (bossy).  It’s the word that does nothing, which is the reason why every writer will tell you not to use this word.

I was surprised to see this useless word appear in William’s poem “This is Just to Say.” Why would a famed imagiste use abstract filler words like just and this in his poetry?  In the poem, the speaker admits to eating someone else's plums and asks for forgiveness. Unlike the title (that acts as the first line of the poem) the confession is clear and shows no hesitation. The poem reads as if the speaker left a note on the kitchen table before leaving for the day. If the poem clearly explains the situation, then why include an imprecise title? 

I relate to the speaker, in that I can’t fully abandon the use of the word just. This idle word is a crutch of honesty. Just is a confession of vulnerability. It bares honesty while admitting a lack of confidence. Writers eliminate this word because they must be confident that language will carry the meaning. However, the vagueness of just and this within the title give the poem meaning. Somehow, Williams directly treats a moment of confession through imprecise language. The title sets a tone of uncertainty that contrast the certainty of the poem. This tonal conflict is created through the differing choice in language. The title offers some type of defense, perhaps born out of uncertainty, for the plum crime. The pairing of a vague title and concrete description nuances the emotion, and thus the meaning, of the poem. William’s experiments with the ways a “direct treatment of the thing” looks like by making hollow words create meaning. With little, empty words, the poem critiques, or perhaps more positively, revises imagism while operating within the poetic tradition.

While William Carlos William’s reevaluates the usefulness of language, Wendell Berry’s poetry commands a reevaluation of material value. The speaker of his poem “Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front” explores the negative consequences of loving material, monetary gain. Explicit imperatives structure the manifesto. The speaker encourages the reader to pursue a life of long-term investment with phrases such as: “Ask the questions that have no answers./ Invest in the millennium./ Plant sequoias.” Berry’s poem follows the manifesto tradition in giving explicit meaning and commands. With this form, the reader is offered a new perspective on living. While William’s poetry does not outline a philosophy of living for the reader, his poetry does offer new perspectives on the function of imaginative language.  

Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front

Wendell Berry

Love the quick profit, the annual raise,

vacation with pay. Want more

of everything ready-made.

Be afraid

to know your neighbors and to die.

And you will have a window in your head.

Not even your future will be a mystery

any more. Your mind will be punched in a card

and shut away in a little drawer.

When they want you to buy something

they will call you. When they want you

to die for profit they will let you know.

So, friends, every day do something

that won't compute. Love the Lord.

Love the world. Work for nothing.

Take all that you have and be poor.

Love someone who does not deserve it.

Denounce the government and embrace

the flag. Hope to live in that free

republic for which it stands.

Give your approval to all you cannot

understand. Praise ignorance, for what man

has not encountered he has not destroyed.

Ask the questions that have no answers.

Invest in the millennium.

Plant sequoias.

Say that your main crop is the forest

that you did not plant,

that you will not live to harvest.

Say that the leaves are harvested

when they have rotted into the mold.

Call that profit. Prophesy such returns.

Put your faith in the two inches of humus

that will build under the trees

every thousand years.

Listen to carrion - put your ear

close, and hear the faint chattering

of the songs that are to come.

Expect the end of the world. Laugh.

Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful

though you have considered all the facts.

So long as women do not go cheap

for power, please women more than men.

Ask yourself: Will this satisfy

a woman satisfied to bear a child?

Will this disturb the sleep

of a woman near to giving birth?

Go with your love to the fields.

Lie down in the shade. Rest your head

in her lap. Swear allegiance

to what is nighest your thoughts.

As soon as the generals and the politicos

can predict the motions of your mind,

lose it. Leave it as a sign

to mark the false trail, the way

you didn't go. Be like the fox

who makes more tracks than necessary,

some in the wrong direction.

Practice resurrection.