Lovely, vivid poem. I was surprised it has, until now, slithered by me unnoticed. I’m satisfied to leave his line intact; after all, the ideas are in the ‘things’ themselves, and in their relationships to one another — words are merely signs and pointers. William Carlos Williams — “famously known for coining the term: ‘No ideas but in things’,” as essayist Ed Wickliffe puts it — “seems to have left no real explanation. … (It was just a line from a poem, after all.) Others have written numerous essays about it, but they do not agree.” The full essay is on Triggerfish Critical Review, should you wish to read it. Those readers for whom Akkadian is a primary language might need a babelfish.
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