Via Negativa

December 21, 2018December 22, 2018 by Luisa A. Igloria

Up, and spent all the morning with my Surveyors of the Ports for the Victualling, and there read to them what instructions I had provided for them and discoursed largely much of our business and the business of the pursers. I left them to dine with my people, and to my Lord Bruncker’s where I met with a great good dinner and Sir T. Teddiman, with whom my Lord and I were to discourse about the bringing of W. Howe to a tryall for his jewells, and there till almost night, and so away toward the office and in my way met with Sir James Bunce; and after asking what newes, he cried “Ah!” says he (I know [not] whether in earnest or jest), “this is the time for you,” says he, “that were for Oliver heretofore; you are full of employment, and we poor Cavaliers sit still and can get nothing;” which was a pretty reproach, I thought, but answered nothing to it, for fear of making it worse. So away and I to see Mrs. Penington, but company being to come to her, I staid not, but to the office a little and so home, and after supper to bed.

a survey
is asking nothing

I answer nothing for fear
of it being me

Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Friday 15 December 1665.

December 20, 2018December 20, 2018 by Luisa A. Igloria

To bear

My daughter collects smooth,
   large stones where she can find them. 

She puts them in a basket and admires
   the way their round backs glisten

after she has washed them in the sink— 
   stripes of grey and tan, chalky white, 

mottled blue like eggs from an unknown 
   species of bird. Lifted from the dirt,

they belie their age. What parts
   of the whole do they carry, how long

since they were shorn off another face?  
   Dry pods bristle across the yard, little

mines of exploded seeds. But there are  
   some things held indefinitely in the heart.

December 20, 2018 by Dave Bonta

Purple hearted

Up, and to the office a while with my Lord Bruncker, where we directed Sir W. Warren in the business of the insurance as I desired, and ended some other businesses of his, and so at noon I to London, but the ‘Change was done before I got thither, so I to the Pope’s Head Taverne, and there find Mr. Gawden and Captain Beckford and Nick Osborne going to dinner, and I dined with them and very exceeding merry we were as I had [not] been a great while, and dinner being done I to the East India House and there had an assignment on Mr. Temple for the 2,000l. of Cocke’s, which joyed my heart; so, having seen my wife in the way, I home by water and to write my letters and then home to bed.

the war ended some other me

we were as one
in the assignment of heart

having seen the way to write
letters home

Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Thursday 14 December 1665.

December 19, 2018 by Dave Bonta

Cuppa

Up betimes and finished my journall for five days back, and then after being ready to my Lord Bruncker by appointment, there to order the disposing of some money that we have come into the office, and here to my great content I did get a bill of imprest to Captain Cocke to pay myself in part of what is coming to me from him for my Lord Sandwich’s satisfaction and my owne, and also another payment or two wherein I am concerned, and having done that did go to Mr. Pierce’s, where he and his wife made me drink some tea, and so he and I by water together to London. Here at a taverne in Cornhill he and I did agree upon my delivering up to him a bill of Captain Cocke’s, put into my hand for Pierce’s use upon evening of reckonings about the prize goods, and so away to the ‘Change, and there hear the ill news, to my great and all our great trouble, that the plague is encreased again this week, notwithstanding there hath been a day or two great frosts; but we hope it is only the effects of the late close warm weather, and if the frosts continue the next week, may fall again; but the town do thicken so much with people, that it is much if the plague do not grow again upon us. Off the ‘Change invited by Sheriff Hooker, who keeps the poorest, mean, dirty table in a dirty house that ever I did see any Sheriff of London; and a plain, ordinary, silly man I think he is, but rich; only his son, Mr. Lethulier, I like, for a pretty, civil, understanding merchant; and the more by much, because he happens to be husband to our noble, fat, brave lady in our parish, that I and my wife admire so. Thence away to the Pope’s Head Taverne, and there met first with Captain Cocke, and dispatched my business with him to my content, he being ready to sign his bill of imprest of 2,000l., and gives it me in part of his payment to me, which glads my heart. He being gone, comes Sir W. Warren, who advised with me about several things about getting money, and 100l. I shall presently have of him. We advised about a business of insurance, wherein something may be saved to him and got to me, and to that end he and I did take a coach at night and to the Cockepitt, there to get the Duke of Albemarle’s advice for our insuring some of our Sounde goods coming home under Harman’s convoy, but he proved shy of doing it without knowledge of the Duke of Yorke, so we back again and calling at my house to see my wife, who is well; though my great trouble is that our poor little parish is the greatest number this weeke in all the city within the walls, having six, from one the last weeke; and so by water to Greenwich leaving Sir W. Warren at home, and I straight to my Lord Bruncker, it being late, and concluded upon insuring something and to send to that purpose to Sir W. Warren to come to us to-morrow morning. So I home and, my mind in great rest, to bed.

having to drink tea
in a dirty house I hear
the sound of water

Erasure haiku derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Wednesday 13 December 1665.

December 19, 2018December 19, 2018 by Luisa A. Igloria

Titles of poems I’d like to write

Inscrutable nests of hair 
in the morning

Ten thousand tears 
and a stale bun

Let's tell each other 
of mystery

When a wave takes back 
the land we never owned

When I remember the story of warriors 
springing up out of a field of corn

When the body doesn't know it is a weapon
only that it is soft

The camera doesn't see inside 
the bolt of lightning

Some things occur with no apparent pattern

I'd rather think of apocrypha as works
of unknown rather than doubtful origin

Who has written as many notebooks
as sunlight?

A large waterfall, a cascade

The glistening lens of the eye 
becoming opaque

In a murmuration, all birds 
except the first fly in the upwash 
from one of the wingtip vortices ahead

December 19, 2018 by Dave Bonta

Shark week

Up, and to the office, where my Lord Bruncker met, and among other things did finish a contract with Cocke for hemp, by which I hope to get my money due from him paid presently. At noon home to dinner, only eating a bit, and with much kindness taking leave of Mr. Hill who goes away to-day, and so I by water saving the tide through Bridge and to Sir G. Downing by appointment at Charing Crosse, who did at first mightily please me with informing me thoroughly the virtue and force of this Act, and indeed it is ten times better than ever I thought could have been said of it, but when he come to impose upon me that without more ado I must get by my credit people to serve in goods and lend money upon it and none could do it better than I, and the King should give me thanks particularly in it, and I could not get him to excuse me, but I must come to him though to no purpose on Saturday, and that he is sure I will bring him some bargains or other made upon this Act, it vexed me more than all the pleasure I took before, for I find he will be troublesome to me in it, if I will let him have as much of my time as he would have. So late I took leave and in the cold (the weather setting in cold) home to the office and, after my letters being wrote, home to supper and to bed, my wife being also gone to London.

I am the thin
fin in the tide

to point is better than to impose

excuse me but I must find
as much time as the weather
to let be

Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Tuesday 12 December 1665.

December 18, 2018December 19, 2018 by Luisa A. Igloria

Windows

The marks of fingertips on fruit,
their bruise--- meaning it is rendered
sweet; meaning the milk-poison
        has been leached. And luck 

is what comes sometimes after loss, 
meaning the path you took wasn't 
the one you were given. Before I 
        learned of groups of musicians 

in black playing instruments together, 
Symphony was the name of my grandfather's 
barbershop: where he cut hair quietly,
        and what fell was like soft, dark grass.

December 17, 2018December 19, 2018 by Luisa A. Igloria

Thresholds

~ after "Ave Cantora" ("Singing Bird"), Armando Valero

We've waited to see       the night-     blooming cereus open 
The egret tip its head    toward the lake          Water
a white skein         winding between towns      A fingernail
A row of hills       The next century        growing louder   
I heard someone say       inertia      But in Japan the cherry
trees flowered again      When birds covered   with their whole wings 
Chaos a checkerboard       Beauty and poetry    a kind of contraband 
A questionnaire            A survey                    Yes things  
formerly winged      will tremble        Not failed  Merely lost       
Here                Help them              get across

December 17, 2018 by Dave Bonta

Fashion-forward

Lay long with great pleasure talking. So I left him and to London to the ‘Change, and after discoursed with several people about business; met Mr. Gawden at the Pope’s Head, where he brought Mr. Lewes and T. Willson to discourse about the Victualling business, and the alterations of the pursers’ trade, for something must be done to secure the King a little better, and yet that they may have wherewith to live. After dinner I took him aside, and perfected to my great joy my business with him, wherein he deals most nobly in giving me his hand for the 4,000l., and would take my note but for 3500l.. This is a great blessing, and God make me thankfull truly for it. With him till it was darke putting in writing our discourse about victualling, and so parted, and I to Viner’s, and there evened all accounts, and took up my notes setting all straight between us to this day. The like to Colvill, and paying several bills due from me on the Tangier account. Then late met Cocke and Temple at the Pope’s Head, and there had good discourse with Temple, who tells me that of the 80,000l. advanced already by the East India Company, they have had 5000l. out of their hands. He discoursed largely of the quantity of money coyned, and what may be thought the real sum of money in the kingdom. He told me, too, as an instance of the thrift used in the King’s business, that the tools and the interest of the money-using to the King for the money he borrowed while the new invention of the mill money was perfected, cost him 35,000l., and in mirthe tells me that the new fashion money is good for nothing but to help the Prince if he can secretly get copper plates shut up in silver it shall never be discovered, at least not in his age.
Thence Cocke and I by water, he home and I home, and there sat with Mr. Hill and my wife supping, talking and singing till midnight, and then to bed.

a head to alter for the king
and a hand to set between us
like a used tool

we invent a new fashion
good for nothing but
to silver over age

Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Monday 11 December 1665.