My poem “This is just to say” is an ethnographic poem and is the outcome of a poetic inquiry and analysis within the scope of Embodied Inquiry from my research into lived experiences of academics in the context of the contemporary UK higher education. It is a response to where someone took ideas another person had to present them as their own. At the same time, however, the poem is in itself “stealing” and idea in that it uses the “This is just to say” by William Carlos Williams as a template to tell that story of someone being “sorry, but not sorry”.

This is just to say

I have taken
the thoughts
you voiced in
our meeting

and which
you were probably
saving
for writing

Forgive me
they were ingenious
so noble
and so bold

Suggested citation:
Brown, N. (2021). This is just to say. So Fi Zine, 9, 11.