Via Negativa

July 21, 2025 by Dave Bonta

Done away

Up early, and though I found myself out of order and cold, and the weather cold and likely to rain, yet upon my promise and desire to do what I intended, I did take boat and down to Greenwich, to Captain Cocke’s, who hath a most pleasant seat, and neat. Here I drank wine, and eat some fruit off the trees; and he showed a great rarity, which was two or three of a great number of silver dishes and plates, which he bought of an embassador that did lack money, in the edge or rim of which was placed silver and gold medalls, very ancient, and I believe wrought, by which, if they be, they are the greatest rarity that ever I saw in my life, and I will show Mr. Crumlum them.
Thence to Woolwich to the Rope-yard; and there looked over several sorts of hemp, and did fall upon my great survey of seeing the working and experiments of the strength and the charge in the dressing of every sort; and I do think have brought it to so great a certainty, as I have done the King great service in it: and do purpose to get it ready against the Duke’s coming to town to present to him.
I breakfasted at Mr. Falconer’s well, and much pleased with my inquiries.
Thence to the dock, where we walked in Mr. Shelden’s garden, eating more fruit, and drinking, and eating figs, which were very good, and talking while the Royal James was bringing towards the dock, and then we went out and saw the manner and trouble of docking such a ship, which yet they could not do, but only brought her head into the Dock, and so shored her up till next tide. But, good God! what a deal of company was there from both yards to help to do it, when half the company would have done it as well. But I see it is impossible for the King to have things done as cheap as other men.
Thence by water, and by and by landing at the riverside somewhere among the reeds, we walked to Greenwich, where to Cocke’s house again and walked in the garden, and then in to his lady, who I find is still pretty, but was now vexed and did speak very discontented and angry to the Captain for disappointing a gentleman that he had invited to dinner, which he took like a wise man and said little, but she was very angry, which put me clear out of countenance that I was sorry I went in. So after I had eat still some more fruit I took leave of her in the garden plucking apricots for preserving, and went away and so by water home, and there Mr. Moore coming and telling me that my Lady goes into the country to-morrow, I carried my wife by coach to take her leave of her father, I staying in Westminster Hall, she going away also this week, and thence to my Lady’s, where we staid and supped with her, but found that my Lady was truly angry and discontented with us for our neglecting to see her as we used to do, but after a little she was pleased as she was used to be, at which we were glad. So after supper home to bed.

a cold rain
on trees of gold
all fall

a good God
is impossible
as the river among us

and the garden is still
a garden but
used up

Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Monday 21 July 1662.

July 21, 2025July 21, 2025 by Luisa A. Igloria

Rough Draft

river in November light between bare woods and mountain

People are out on a humid Friday evening 
walking their dogs, buying tickets to the new
Superman movie, or just going in for a bucket
of their favorite buttered popcorn, which they'll 
take across the street to eat on the west-facing 
steps of the middle school. We lick the last of
the gelato off our fingers as rain starts to fall.
Lightning stirs inside thick-bellied clouds, then 
it's like some god or a beast is clearing its throat 
before uttering an important edict. Is the medium 
as important as the message? Is it the same message 
each time, or just the form that changes? Sometimes 
I don't know what I want to say until I say it; if you
knew, though, wouldn't the meaning be clear?

July 20, 2025July 20, 2025 by Luisa A. Igloria

Fire Blanket

In the early hours I hear a clink and a light
thud in the kitchen, which means now I'm fully 
awake. I wonder if I should take a look and more,
if I should bring some kind of heavy object with me 
that I can swing if whatever made the noise might happen 
to be an unwelcome intruder. There being no other sound, 
I walk in my bare feet and peer over the banister. What's 
fallen to the floor is the Fire Blanket, still in its red 
pouch but too heavy for the hook pressed to the side of 
the stovetop island. The ad said it was an important buy, 
but something the manufacturer hoped no one would ever 
actually have to use. Pressing it back in place, I too hope 
it will just hang there, a flag unfolded but ready to snap 
to full proportion, should the air heat beyond a simmer.

July 20, 2025 by Dave Bonta

Rally

(Lord’s day). My wife and I lay talking long in bed, and at last she is come to be willing to stay two months in the country, for it is her unwillingness to stay till the house is quite done that makes me at a loss how to have her go or stay.
But that which troubles me most is that it has rained all this morning so furiously that I fear my house is all over water, and with that expectation I rose and went into my house and find that it is as wet as the open street, and that there is not one dry-footing above nor below in my house. So I fitted myself for dirt, and removed all my books to the office and all day putting up and restoring things, it raining all day long as hard within doors as without. At last to dinner, we had a calf’s head and bacon at my chamber at Sir W. Pen’s, and there I and my wife concluded to have her go and her two maids and the boy, and so there shall be none but Will and I left at home, and so the house will be freer, for it is impossible to have anybody come into my house while it is in this condition, and with this resolution all the afternoon we were putting up things in the further cellar against next week for them to be gone, and my wife and I into the office and there measured a soiled flag that I had found there, and hope to get it to myself, for it has not been demanded since I came to the office. But my wife is not hasty to have it, but rather to stay a while longer and see the event whether it will be missed or no.
At night to my office, and there put down this day’s passages in my journall, and read my oaths, as I am obliged every Lord’s day. And so to Sir W. Pen’s to my chamber again, being all in dirt and foul, and in fear of having catched cold today with dabbling in the water.
But what has vexed me to-day was that by carrying the key to Sir W. Pen’s last night, it could not in the midst of all my hurry to carry away my books and things, be found, and at last they found it in the fire that we made last night. So to bed.

the country that troubles
me most is fear

putting up a calf’s head
putting up a soiled flag

night could not be found
in the fire we made

Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Sunday 20 July 1662.

July 19, 2025July 19, 2025 by Luisa A. Igloria

Weathered, We Weather

The world has never lacked 
for contronyms. One of the earliest
I learned was cleave, as in Now cleave
together as man and wife; and also 
what the cook in a restaurant kitchen 
window does as he brings down his biggest 
cleaver, severing a roast chicken or duck 
at its joints. Bolt and buckle; finish, 
dust, weather. Look away and the roll
of beautiful silk winds up in the grubby
hands of a merchant who won't pay full
price. Look another way— the light is still
there somewhere, but also the sight of new 
horrors that will make your knees go under.

July 19, 2025 by Dave Bonta

Wash

Up early and to some business, and my wife coming to me I staid long with her discoursing about her going into the country, and as she is not very forward so am I at a great loss whether to have her go or no because of the charge, and yet in some considerations I would be glad she was there, because of the dirtiness of my house and the trouble of having of a family there. So to my office, and there all the morning, and then to dinner and my brother Tom dined with me only to see me. In the afternoon I went upon the river to look after some tarr I am sending down and some coles, and so home again; it raining hard upon the water, I put ashore and sheltered myself, while the King came by in his barge, going down towards the Downs to meet the Queen: the Duke being gone yesterday. But methought it lessened my esteem of a king, that he should not be able to command the rain.
Home, and Cooper coming (after I had dispatched several letters) to my mathematiques, and so at night to bed to a chamber at Sir W. Pen’s, my own house being so foul that I cannot lie there any longer, and there the chamber lies so as that I come into it over my leads without going about, but yet I am not fully content with it, for there will be much trouble to have servants running over the leads to and fro.

coming into the country
for some dirt

the river after rain
foul and full

Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Saturday 19 July 1662.

July 18, 2025July 18, 2025 by Luisa A. Igloria

Poem with 14 Openings

~ after Dobby Gibson


 
Like a flag left at half-mast since November

Like radio announcements about defunding public radio

Like a black swallowtail butterfly circling the fig tree 

Like the fig tree announcing it was the tree of Eden

Like a gate whose visitor pass reader is now set at "Error"

Like the letter J, which occurs neither as name nor symbol
of an element in the periodic table

Like the lonely but noble gases, which rarely bond with other elements

Like the gods who find they too have to change to escape death

Like properties recurring periodically along each row of a table

Like the axolotl regenerating its damaged heart ventricle

Like mountains becoming their minerals all along a gradient

Like a jar of edible honey found in a centuries-old tomb

Like waking up alone in a monastery suspended in the air

Like the axolotl refusing to change into land-dwelling form

July 18, 2025July 17, 2025 by Dave Bonta

Go figure

Up very early, and got a-top of my house, seeing the design of my work, and like it very well, and it comes into my head to have my dining-room wainscoated, which will be very pretty. By-and-by by water to Deptford, to put several things in order, being myself now only left in town, and so back again to the office, and there doing business all the morning and the afternoon also till night, and then comes Cooper for my mathematiques, but, in good earnest, my head is so full of business that I cannot understand it as otherwise I should do.
At night to bed, being much troubled at the rain coming into my house, the top being open.

a sign like a coat for things
on and off

re-doing my mathematics
my head is full of rain

Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Friday 18 July 1662.

July 17, 2025July 17, 2025 by Luisa A. Igloria

Worky Work

Does assigning a name or title to any function 
seem to make it more real in certain ways? 
For instance, you could be a submarine chef— 
a "Culinary Specialist, Submarines" or CSS, 
and work on Navy submarines to cook meals 
for the crew. When the vessel submerges 
and emits sonar pings, you're reminded of
the little tune the rice cooker plays
to let you know the rice is ready. 
You could be a nail polish namer, 
dreaming up names like Champagne 
Crush for a sparkly pink, or Radio Flyer 
for an enameled red. In seafood processing 
plants, workers who do the tedious and 
repetitive task of extracting crab flesh 
from legs and claws are called meat pickers.  
Once, on a Reddit thread, someone asked 
if restaurants provide utensils for crab
legs. A smartass replied, "No, restaurants 
provide utensils for human hands to eat crab 
legs. The crab legs are dead and frozen 
and cooked and there's no way that they 
could possibly use utensils." There's 
a name for that kind of person as well; 
a name for the one who disappears for longer
than his lunch hour, and the one who's never 
pleased by anything you do on the job.

July 17, 2025 by Dave Bonta

Redemption arc

To my office, and by and by to our sitting; where much business. Mr. Coventry took his leave, being to go with the Duke over for the Queen-Mother. I dined at home, and so to my Lord’s, where I presented him with a true state of all his accounts to last Monday, being the 14th of July, which did please him, and to my great joy I continue in his great esteem and opinion. I this day took a general acquittance from my Lord to the same day. So that now I have but very few persons to deal withall for money in the world.
Home and found much business to be upon my hands, and was late at the office writing letters by candle light, which is rare at this time of the year, but I do it with much content and joy, and then I do please me to see that I begin to have people direct themselves to me in all businesses.
Very late I was forced to send for Mr. Turner, Smith, Young, about things to be sent down early to-morrow on board the King’s pleasure boat, and so to bed with my head full of business, but well contented in mind as ever in my life.

where is the mother
of Monday today

I have hands writing
by candle light

I begin to turn about
the pleasure boat of my life

Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Thursday 17 July 1662.