Via Negativa

December 16, 2023 by Dave Bonta

Small town

In the morning to church, and then dined at home. In the afternoon I to White Hall, where I was surprised with the news of a plot against the King’s person and my Lord Monk’s; and that since last night there are about forty taken up on suspicion; and, amongst others, it was my lot to meet with Simon Beale, the Trumpeter, who took me and Tom Doling into the Guard in Scotland Yard, and showed us Major-General Overton, where I heard him deny that he is guilty of any such things; but that whereas it is said that he is found to have brought many arms to town, he says it is only to sell them, as he will prove by oath.
From thence with Tom Doling and Boston and D. Vines (whom we met by the way) to Price’s, and there we drank, and in discourse I learnt a pretty trick to try whether a woman be a maid or no, by a string going round her head to meet at the end of her nose, which if she be not will come a great way beyond.
Thence to my Lady’s and staid with her an hour or two talking of the Duke of York and his lady, the Chancellor’s daughter, between whom, she tells me, that all is agreed and he will marry her. But I know not how true yet.
It rained hard, and my Lady would have had me have the coach, but I would not, but to my father’s, where I met my wife, and there supped, and after supper by link home and to bed.

all over town with a ring
at the end of her nose

which will come
to marry her

but I know how true
rain would be

Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Sunday 16 December 1660.

December 16, 2023December 15, 2023 by Luisa A. Igloria

Diapause

river in November light between bare woods and mountain

In the park you stumbled and took first 
steps on the grass.

Where now is such a space 
that is so forgiving?

Once there was a rink where children skated,
unwinding time one loop after another.

I am still working 
on my balance.

In summer, silk webs bloom,
spanning incredible lengths in the garden.

Now it is winter and the weavers have wound 
their threads, nesting under leaf litter and mulch.

December 15, 2023December 15, 2023 by Dave Bonta

Subject

All day at home looking upon my workmen, only at noon Mr. Moore came and brought me some things to sign for the Privy Seal and dined with me. We had three eels that my wife and I bought this morning of a man, that cried them about, for our dinner, and that was all I did to-day.

I am something
for the sea

an eel

an I that cried

Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Saturday 15 December 1660.

December 15, 2023 by Dave Bonta

Speculator

looking only at ore
brought me something
to sign

the land cried out
and that was all

Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Saturday 15 December 1660.

December 15, 2023December 15, 2023 by Luisa A. Igloria

Winged

The night was moody as the inner lining 
of a crow's feathers. It reminded you
it was perhaps time for a haircut.

You rinsed your hair in the sink 

and sat on a deck chair in cold
sunlight. I brought out the fine-
toothed comb and the scissors

and started at the nape. Is a strand

greater than the whole 
because all roots branch 
from there? 

How quiet this shearing. 

In the morning I woke with a rasp
in my throat, Each barb is a feather
within a feather 

with a little shaft of its own

December 14, 2023 by Dave Bonta

Earwigged

Also all this day looking upon my workmen. Only met with the Comptroller at the office a little both forenoon and afternoon, and at night step a little with him to the Coffee House where we light upon very good company and had very good discourse concerning insects and their having a generative faculty as well as other creatures.
This night in discourse the Comptroller told me among other persons that were heretofore the principal officers of the Navy, there was one Sir Peter Buck, a Clerk of the Acts, of which to myself I was not a little proud.

all day a little night
a little coffee

is our insect as old
as the self

Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Friday 14 December 1660.

December 14, 2023December 14, 2023 by Luisa A. Igloria

Villanelle of the Three Daughters

~ after Marlyn Nelson


Three daughters, reading in bed in the early morning
              (this, from the time when there wasn't yet a fourth).
This, from the time before accusations and warnings

about leaving or having abandoned someone. To think
                they shared a quilted coverlet, provenance, and birth.
Three daughters, reading in bed early in the morning.

Since then, she's had a fourth; but thinks she still sucks at parenting
                 despite the many years she's been alive on earth.
Back then, no one accused anyone yet of being 

disloyal, untrue, not enough. From the window at the sink,
               the world looked the size of a stamp. They lived up north.
she and three daughters, reading in bed in the early morning,

From each cord, she kept the dried umblical stump,
          threaded these on a pin; for close bonds, for what it's worth.  
—in these rituals, no one could accuse her of not trying.  

They look at photographs from that old life.
They play together, smile in school costumes—
this from the time when no one has yet accused anyone.
Three daughters, reading in bed in the early morning,

December 13, 2023 by Dave Bonta

Artist’s eye

All the day long looking upon my workmen who this day began to paint my parlour. Only at noon my Lady Batten and my wife came home, and so I stepped to my Lady’s, where were Sir John Lawson and Captain Holmes, and there we dined and had very good red wine of my Lady’s own making in England.

all day looking
upon my paint

I am in the red
of my own making

Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Thursday 13 December 1660.

December 13, 2023December 12, 2023 by Luisa A. Igloria

How to Debone a Chicken

First you cut out the backbone,
then you feel where the leg and thigh
bones connect at the joint. This is where 
you break them. You work your way in, 
loosening flesh from where it's fastened. 
Carefully you lift the whole, a cage or hull; 
or an instrument that once hinged open 
and shut, levered by wings. Now you clean 
the interior and fill it with something 
fragrant called a farce—as if cramming it full 
with stuffing restores some semblance of itself. 
You turn it over, tie the open flaps with twine. 
Just as you might do after touching another body, 
you rinse your slick-stained hands at the sink.

December 12, 2023December 12, 2023 by Luisa A. Igloria

a day can be a palindrome

is it possible to die happy
even for just a moment 

pretend we have no enemies or debts
pretend the sky is benevolent

can we gather without crowding
in one ruined room in a dream or a film

that isn't a documentary 
where the subject is us taken captive

can we stay in our homes 

without being cast as captives
in every documentary

in one ruined room in a dream or a film
can we gather without crowding

pretend the sky is benevolent
pretend we have no enemies or debts

even for just a moment
is it possible to die happy