Via Negativa

July 14, 2025July 14, 2025 by Luisa A. Igloria

Up by 4 o’clock and to my arithmetique, and so to my office till 8, then to Thames Street along with old Mr. Green, among the tarr-men, and did instruct myself in the nature and prices of tarr, but could not get Stockholm for the use of the office under 10l. 15s. per last, which is a great price. So home, and at noon Dr. T. Pepys came to me, and he and I to the Exchequer, and so back to dinner, where by chance comes Mr. Pierce, the chyrurgeon, and then Mr. Battersby, the minister, and then Mr. Dun, and it happened that I had a haunch of venison boiled, and so they were very wellcome and merry; but my simple Dr. do talk so like a fool that I am weary of him. They being gone, to my office again, and there all the afternoon, and at night home and took a few turns with my wife in the garden and so to bed. My house being this day almost quite untiled in order to its rising higher. This night I began to put on my waistcoat also. I found the pageant in Cornhill taken down, which was pretty strange.

I am green among men
my target is so so simple

like the night garden
and its rising corn

Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Monday 14 July 1662.

July 13, 2025 by Dave Bonta

Fire marshall

(Lord’s day) Having by some mischance hurt my cods. I had my old pain all yesterday and this morning, and so kept my bed all this morning. So up and after dinner and some of my people to church, I set about taking down my books and papers and making my chamber fit against to-morrow to have the people come to work in pulling down the top of my house. In the evening I walked to the garden and sent for Mr. Turner (who yesterday did give me occasion of speaking to him about the difference between him and me), and I told him my whole mind, and how it was in my power to do him a discourtesy about his place of petty purveyance, and at last did make him see (I think) that it was his concernment to be friendly to me and what belongs to me. After speaking my mind to him and he to me, we walked down and took boat at the Tower and to Deptford, on purpose to sign and seal a couple of warrants, as justice of peace in Kent, against one Annis, who is to be tried next Tuesday, at Maidstone assizes, for stealing some lead out of Woolwich Yard. Going and coming I did discourse with Mr. Turner about the faults of our management of the business of our office, of which he is sensible, but I believe is a very knave. Come home I found a rabbit at the fire, and so supped well, and so to my journall and to bed.

yesterday is my church
and tomorrow my hole

I long to speak
my mind to a stone

some discourse of management
in our office of fire

Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Sunday 13 July 1662.

July 13, 2025July 13, 2025 by Luisa A. Igloria

Sunday Poem in Which I Ask you to Imagine Details

river in November light between bare woods and mountain

An older man and his wife ask the two
women in front of me if they're in line
for coffee; when they nod, they slide
right in as though they don't even see
me there. I don't say anything, though I
think things (like they're probably the type
who won't bus their own table, but maybe 
I'm just being judgmental). It's busy 
behind the counter. Chaotic even, with people 
changing orders: hot not iced, soy milk not 
almond, regular cold brew but no ice. One 
of the baristas fumbles with a glass cup 
and it cracks on the counter then shatters 
on the floor amid a profusion of I'm sorrys. 
A woman with a clerical collar peeking out 
of her t-shirt starts to pick up the pieces 
and the barista says No no I don't want you
to cut yourself. The artist who everyone
knows shuffles in from the back in a dark
blue Hawaiian shirt. There's always 
a reserved table for him; and copies of
his pen and ink drawings plastic-sleeved
in binders near the roaster. Over the grand
piano that no one is playing right now, two
paper lanterns sway lightly in an unseen breeze.
Above the bar there are three more, but ruffled 
like strange upside down poppies. If you look 
closely, you'll see they're cunningly made 
of layers of coffee filter paper.

July 12, 2025July 12, 2025 by Luisa A. Igloria

Weight

After things in the world begin to seriously
     feel bound for hell in a handbasket, for months
I wallow in my inertia and can't seem to haul 
     myself out of bed to go to the gym. I feel 
the flabby parts of my body taking over the muscle
     I was trying to build, offering their soft jello 
lining under the waistband of my workout pants. But  
     it's the pain shooting from my right hip down 
to the knee and calf that forces me to go back; 
     the tightness in my legs, getting up in the morning.
Funny how this thing done with pulleys and dumb- 
     bells is called resistance training: resistance
meaning the capacity to oppose or withstand 
     an obstacle or impeding force, the biggest one
in this case being your own body— each day toting  
     its limbs and organs around, so long carrying 
brickloads of grief it's forgotten how to let go of.

July 12, 2025 by Dave Bonta

Subtraction

Up by five o’clock, and put things in my house in order to be laid up, against my workmen come on Monday to take down the top of my house, which trouble I must go through now, but it troubles me much to think of it. So to my office, where till noon we sat, and then I to dinner and to the office all the afternoon with much business. At night with Cooper at arithmetique, and then came Mr. Creed about my Lord’s accounts to even them, and he gone I to supper and to bed.

five o’clockwork Monday
to take the top
of my office off
with night arithmetic
count to one

Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Saturday 12 July 1662.

July 12, 2025 by Dave Bonta

Bloody-minded

Up by four o’clock, and hard at my multiplicacion-table, which I am now almost master of, and so made me ready and to my office, where by and by comes Mr. Pett, and then a messenger from Mr. Coventry, who stays in his boat at the Tower for us. So we to him, and down to Deptford first, and there viewed some deals lately served in at a low price, which our officers, like knaves, would untruly value in their worth, but we found them good. Then to Woolwich, and viewed well all the houses and stores there, which lie in very great confusion for want of storehouses, and then to Mr. Ackworth’s and Sheldon’s to view their books, which we found not to answer the King’s service and security at all as to the stores. Then to the Ropeyard, and there viewed the hemp, wherein we found great corruption, and then saw a trial between Sir R. Ford’s yarn and our own, and found great odds. So by water back again. About five in the afternoon to Whitehall, and so to St. James’s; and at Mr. Coventry’s chamber, which is very neat and fine, we had a pretty neat dinner, and after dinner fell to discourse of business and regulation, and do think of many things that will put matters into better order, and upon the whole my heart rejoices to see Mr. Coventry so ingenious, and able, and studious to do good, and with much frankness and respect to Mr. Pett and myself particularly. About 9 o’clock we broke up after much discourse and many things agreed on in order to our business of regulation, and so by water (landing Mr. Pett at the Temple) I went home and to bed.

who would truly view
a great confusion

and not answer security
or ropeyard yarn

our own odd water
will put matters better

the whole heart is agreed
on our regulation

Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Friday 11 July 1662.

July 11, 2025July 11, 2025 by Luisa A. Igloria

Stridulation

At a regional food fair, next to a vendor
selling Asian-themed Crocs charms and another
handing out chile-lime dried beef samples, 
there's a guy inviting folks to try air-
fried crickets. There's one each in small
paper cups: their compact bodies no larger
than an inch, their hind legs neatly folded 
(not, as I once thought, the part of their 
anatomy responsible for producing their 
chirping song). Nearby, an oil-glossed mound 
of them in a bowl. From a little distance, 
they look no different from other crackling 
finger food my uncles scooped up by the handful 
in between swigs of cold San Mig: besides crickets, 
deep-fried locusts, pork belly, ceviche. It's with
their wings that crickets make their music— one wing 
has a scraper, the other an edge like a file. The central 
part of the wing is called the harp, and it amplifies 
the sounds they make. Some species will eat anything, 
whereas others feed only on flowers, fruit, and leaves. 
Their collective noun is "orchestra"— which is fitting,
even in the moment we bite down and the crunch 
resonates for a tiny minute in the balcony of our mouths.

July 10, 2025July 10, 2025 by Luisa A. Igloria

High Water Line

When we're looking at houses,
we ask our realtor what neighborhood
isn't so close to water and he scoffs.
This whole town is surrounded by water.
The Atlantic, the bay, three rivers. 
There are local legends of peninsulas
formed in the wake of nor'easters— 
or maybe some god spitting furiously 
out of his mouth. Barely two months after 
we arrive, we put chairs on top of the dining 
table, fill the tub with water, and contemplate
leaving town. In 1749, the Chesapeake rose 15 
feet and battered everything in sight. Every 
rain that goes on for days could lead to 
catastrophic flooding. People used to hold 
hurricane parties, but I don't think they do 
now. We listen to the news on the radio 
about rivers in other parts of the country;
how many have been rescued, how many
are still missing. How the houses bobbed
on roiling waters like toys in a giant drum.

July 10, 2025July 12, 2025 by Dave Bonta

Ice

Up by four o’clock, and before I went to the office I practised my arithmetique, and then, when my wife was up, did call her and Sarah, and did make up a difference between them, for she is so good a servant as I am loth to part with her. So to the office all the morning, where very much business, but it vexes me to see so much disorder at our table, that, every man minding a several business, we dispatch nothing.
Dined at home with my wife, then to the office again, and being called by Sir W. Batten, walked to the Victualler’s office, there to view all the several offices and houses to see that they were employed in order to give the Council an account thereof. So after having taken an oath or two of Mr. Lewes and Captain Brown and others I returned to the office, and there sat despatching several businesses alone till night, and so home and by daylight to bed.

the arithmetic
difference between us

is a nothing with several uses
we count and own

and others turn to ice
night and day

Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Thursday 10 July 1662.