Via Negativa

December 26, 2023 by Dave Bonta

The war cure

In the morning to Alderman Backwell’s for the candlesticks for Mr. Coventry, but they being not done I went away, and so by coach to Mr. Crew’s, and there took some money of Mr. Moore’s for my Lord, and so to my Lord’s, where I found Sir Thomas Bond (whom I never saw before) with a message from the Queen about vessells for the carrying over of her goods, and so with him to Mr. Coventry, and thence to the office (being soundly washed going through the bridge) to Sir Wm. Batten and Pen (the last of whom took physic to-day), and so I went up to his chamber, and there having made an end of the business I returned to White Hall by water, and dined with my Lady Sandwich, who at table did tell me how much fault was laid upon Dr. Frazer and the rest of the Doctors, for the death of the Princess!
My Lord did dine this day with Sir Henry Wright, in order to his going to sea with the Queen.
Thence to my father Bowyer’s where I met my wife, and with her home by water.

can sticks be one
with the oven

ash going white
as the doctor Death

Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Wednesday 26 December 1660.

December 26, 2023December 25, 2023 by Luisa A. Igloria

Villanelle of Rest

river in November light between bare woods and mountain

I smooth a space for rest, I pour
a tonic for my head. Carnations
droop as if in sympathy in the glass.

My dreams are nothing but a blank.
Or they are about wars in other nations.
I smooth a space for rest, I pour

myself into position for prayer.
I crave only water as libation. Flowers
droop as if in sympathy in the glass.

After the solstice, the dark lifts 
imperceptibly, by degrees. Birds return.
I smooth a tentative space for rest, pour

myself again into some work.
I wake a little later in the day; at night
sometimes I droop too quickly in the glass.

Who knows when we 
will have any ease again?
I smooth a space for rest. Flowers
droop as if in sympathy in the glass.

December 25, 2023 by Dave Bonta

Christmas break

(Christmas day). In the morning very much pleased to see my house once more clear of workmen and to be clean, and indeed it is so, far better than it was that I do not repent of my trouble that I have been at.
In the morning to church, where Mr. Mills made a very good sermon. After that home to dinner, where my wife and I and my brother Tom (who this morning came to see my wife’s new mantle put on, which do please me very well), to a good shoulder of mutton and a chicken. After dinner to church again, my wife and I, where we had a dull sermon of a stranger, which made me sleep, and so home, and I, before and after supper, to my lute and Fuller’s History, at which I staid all alone in my chamber till 12 at night, and so to bed.

Christmas ease
far better than the mill

where I shoulder
a dull sleep

after history
all alone in amber

Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Tuesday 25 December 1660.

December 25, 2023December 23, 2023 by Luisa A. Igloria

Needs

I wanted to tell you of its deep exhaustion, 
this self when it's at the level of no adornment, 

without calculation, without pretense. It's been 
trained so well and long to hide the signs of its true
 
nature even from itself— In school, the nuns 
gave girls lessons in deportment that included 

walking up and down the stairs only on the balls 
of their feet; not to speak out of turn, and without 

changing the inflection of voice. Sacrifice, 
the greatest mother-virtue that always puts 

the needs of others before your own. But I wake 
sometimes in the middle of the night to wonder

who will care for me when I can no longer;
who will smooth out a space for rest.

December 24, 2023 by Dave Bonta

Old stick

In the morning to the office and Commissioner Pett (who seldom comes there) told me that he had lately presented a piece of plate (being a couple of flaggons) to Mr. Coventry, but he did not receive them, which also put me upon doing the same too; and so after dinner I went and chose a payre of candlesticks to be made ready for me at Alderman Backwell’s. To the office again in the afternoon till night, and so home, and with the painters till 10 at night, making an end of my house and the arch before my door, and so this night I was rid of them and all other work, and my house was made ready against to-morrow being Christmas day. This day the Princess Royal died at Whitehall.

I miss being a couple
a pair of candles

made to paint the night
a Christmas white

Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Monday 24 December 1660.

December 24, 2023December 22, 2023 by Luisa A. Igloria

By Whatever Light

Things we don't want to disappear: what 
do we turn them into? The girl's father 

wanted to keep her safe, and watched as she turned 
into a tree. The one forbidden to show his true 

nature begged to shield his face from any kind 
of light. But the heart has a habit of pressing 

forward despite whatever obstacle—We've all been 
caught there, furtively dropping the oil of our desire 

on the beloved's shoulder. All for a glimpse of the self 
without adornment, without calculation or pretense.

December 23, 2023 by Dave Bonta

Graffito

(Lord’s day). In the morning to Church, where our pew all covered with rosemary and baize. A stranger made a dull sermon.
Home and found my wife and maid with much ado had made shift to spit a great turkey sent me this week from Charles Carter, my old colleague, now minister in Huntingdonshire, but not at all roasted, and so I was fain to stay till two o’clock, and after that to church with my wife, and a good sermon there was, and so home.
All the evening at my book, and so to supper and to bed.

the wall covered
with a strange sermon

a key but no lock
to go in my book

Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Sunday 23 December 1660.

December 23, 2023December 22, 2023 by Luisa A. Igloria

Every bird sings with the shadow of your voice.

Every bird sings with the shadow of your voice.
I hear it in the dark hours before morning,

or as a leaf of a different color in the hubbub
of the day. It siphons the air like a flute,

before joining the chorus of domestic machines.
You have to believe in it to hear. It seems nothing,

but it's there in the understory. I don't necessarily want 
it to be any louder. I just don't want it to disappear.

December 22, 2023December 23, 2023 by Dave Bonta

Winter Bells

high above the town
a tree rests on a black stone of sap

like an exclamation mark
for a life sentence

or the old hearth and chimney
that i found yesterday

standing alone
deep in the state forest

we are confronted by the absent
the deciduous undead

drained of sap
immune to the provocations of sunlight

their pantomimes of desire
reduced to mere architecture

while stones dance
through freeze and thaw

all winter long now
rocking in their cradles of leaves

the day after the solstice
the sun reappears

in the dark ice-free end
of a woodland pool

for a long moment just after noon
amid the clamor of bells

December 22, 2023December 22, 2023 by Luisa A. Igloria

Tale

Perhaps the parts of me you've cut off 
have become myth. Some kind of story,
at least: where did she go? why 
doesn't she write or call? The train
is stalled again at the intersection:
one either waits indefinitely, or finds
a way to leave the line. We used to read
stories about a changeling left in the night, 
while the girl that was taken was wed 
in the underworld. The ice baby sobbed
its heart out and as soon as it could,
ran into the yard to bay at the hills.
Or perhaps it was the mother 
taken away? I can't remember right
sometimes. But here we are in the middle
of the wood again. Finally the train
has moved on. The town looks
dusted with sugar. The trees 
are brittle with change. Every bird
sings with the shadow of your voice.