Pepys Diary erasure project – Page 351

Category: Pepys Diary erasure project

Starting January 1, 2013, this is a daily exercise in erasure poetry based on the 17th-century Diary of Samuel Pepys. Why this work? Its language is admirably concrete, with recurring words and turns of phrase shaped by the exigencies of Pepys’ original shorthand. In thought and content it stands at the beginning of the modern era: the first truly confessional piece of literature by a man equally fascinated by religion and science, and whose curiosity encompassed everything from music-making and theater to mathematics, accounting, politics, fashion, and carnal pleasures. And last but not least, the 1899 Wheatley edition is available online in a website that is really a model for how to present literature on the web. It was my desire to read it day by day that led to this project, which I view not as erasure but as discovery—a kind of deep (mis)reading. Pepys was a sexual predator and an architect of British colonialism who personally profited off the slave trade, so any less than an engaged, critical reading of the diary, in this day and age, would be irresponsible. From a secret diary, these are the secret poems hidden even from the author himself.

I began compiling the erasures into free ebooks in 2017. Here are 1664, 1665, 1666, 1667, 1668 and 1669.

March 19, 2013 by Dave Bonta

Mare Desiderii

Infinity makes
my head full.
I have been king
of the sea where
we drank and drank
till water was
the wish of all.
My mind is still
in the drink.

Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Monday 19 March 1659/60.

March 18, 2013March 19, 2013 by Dave Bonta

The Muffin Man

I rose early to barber
the moss of the wood,
took a house
in Drury Lane
and ate toasted cakes
which were very crisp.

Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Sunday 18 March 1659/60.

March 17, 2013 by Dave Bonta

Landsman

I bade adieu to a rose,
gave paper to a paper,
drank farewell and drank to one
that would have a place at sea—a seal
who had a great desire to go to sea—
and I went home and sat there
talking old, playing old
till it was time to go lay
in a fine urn.

Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Saturday 17 March 1659/60.

March 16, 2013 by Dave Bonta

Waterbound

Troubled with abundance of sea,
land going to water,

I rent a raft and eat tongue,
a fat joy in the chapel Chance.

I study how this day dissolved
without fire, sad in mind.

Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Friday 16 March 1659/60.

March 15, 2013 by Dave Bonta

Provisioning

Packing up, I took leave
of my old axe
and bought a bit of salmon
for the sun.
I promise to give all
that I have to the brave.
I am not discontented
with my sleep.

Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Thursday 15 March 1659/60.

March 14, 2013 by Dave Bonta

Cabbage Mind

O infinity of papers, give a piece of me
to the surgeon, to soldiers, to the town
where I seem a dull heavy man.
I had a mind to some cabbage,
I sent for some and had it.
A strange thing how I am
already in the book
of rain and night.

Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Wednesday 14 March 1659/60.

March 13, 2013 by Dave Bonta