Accidental Poetry

I stumbled upon this intriguing note stapled into a HIV patient's chart yesterday, and was immediately reminded of that William Carlos Williams' poem 'This Is Just to Say'. I've always loved his work in general, but became particularly fascinated by this particular piece after it was used as an example of 'Incidental Artworks' in the Aesthetics seminar I took in college. From what I remember about the discussion of this work, it is unclear whether his lines were written as a poem - per se - or whether he had just written out a note for his wife to see when she returned to the kitchen. The question discussed in class was - more or less - does/should intent determine how a work is viewed? If his note was never intended to be a work of art, can we think of it as one?

Here is the note I found attached to the chart - with some notes to help you guys out with the HIV drug class abbreviations - followed by the text of the William Carlos Williams poem.



Things To Do

Please check for
the genotype results
I remember seeing
it sometime ago

I think this patient
was resistent to all
the PI's but not
the NNRTI's/NRTI's

*notes*
PI = Protease Inhibitors
NNRTI = Nucleoside Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitor
NRTI = Non-Nucleoside Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitor

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