Divided loyalties

Home all the morning. Several people came to me about business, among others the great Tom Fuller, who came to desire a kindness for a friend of his, who hath a mind to go to Jamaica with these two ships that are going, which I promised to do.
So to Whitehall to my Lady, whom I found at dinner and dined with her, and staid with her talking all the afternoon, and thence walked to Westminster Hall. So to Will’s, and drank with Spicer, and thence by coach home, staying a little in Paul’s Churchyard, to bespeak Ogilby’s Æsop’s Fables and Tully’s Officys to be bound for me. So home and to bed.

Desire is a mind
with two ships in it.
I stayed with her
and walked—
staying in a fable,
bound for bed.

Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Saturday 5 January 1660/61.

Year of the Horse

“In the daytime also he led them with a cloud,
and all the night with a light of fire….”
~ The Psalms 78

Under that flank
I can touch, a ripple

that grows to my fingers
with a bulge like a fig—

Quicken is the way
night turns, rapid

as the valance
of morning. Sh sh

say the birds
in the tree,

purpling sonnets
and psalms for silence—

No need to drink
that poison. No need

to lie down and cry.
Nothing is wasted,

my dearest love;
nothing is lost.

Come out now and eat
the sugar from the offered

hand; bite of apple,
salt of the bridle

leading again to the gate
and the track beyond.

Twelfth Night

Office all the morning, my wife and Pall being gone to my father’s to dress dinner for Mr. Honiwood, my mother being gone out of town. Dined at home, and Mr. Moore with me, with whom I had been early this morning at White Hall, at the Jewell Office, to choose a piece of gilt plate for my Lord, in return of his offering to the King (which it seems is usual at this time of year, and an Earl gives twenty pieces in gold in a purse to the King). I chose a gilt tankard, weighing 31 ounces and a half, and he is allowed 30; so I paid 12s. for the ounce and half over what he is to have; but strange it was for me to see what a company of small fees I was called upon by a great many to pay there, which, I perceive, is the manner that courtiers do get their estates.
After dinner Mr. Moore and I to the Theatre, where was “The Scornful Lady,” acted very well, it being the first play that ever he saw. Thence with him to drink a cup of ale at Hercules Pillars, and so parted. I called to see my father, who told me by the way how Will and Mary Joyce do live a strange life together, nothing but fighting, &c., so that sometimes her father has a mind to have them divorced. Thence home.

All the wood is white.
An earl gives the king
a gilt tank.
We of small estates
play Hercules
and live a strange life—
nothing but fighting.

Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Friday 4 January 1660/61.

Time is no old token—

no mere copper

flattened at a poorly
lit rest stop in a town

in the middle of mid-
America— No plush

toy lifted by pincers
from a glassed-in

bin for the price
of a wish for as long

as you have three
quarters to push

into the slot. Go
outside and breathe

the cold air, check
how the dark still

threshes the brightest
stars before you buckle

in for the ride again,
past house after house:

some identical as slats
in a picket fence, some

marked with just the faintest
thumbprint of curry escaping

from a kitchen window, one
whose gutter has been replaced

by cups of linked metal
in a rain chain.

 

In response to Via Negativa: Belated Christmas letter.

2013 in photos: Touched by a Rachel

I took a lot of photos this year, most of them during the two months I spent in the UK. I never did get around to sharing them all, so let me try to make up for lost time with a few gargantuan posts. One benefit of taking a look back is seeing patterns that one might not notice otherwise.

Holding up a beech

Here’s Rachel laying her hand on beech trees in Hebden Bridge, Continue reading “2013 in photos: Touched by a Rachel”

Siddhartha

Early in the morning to the Exchequer, where I told over what money I had of my Lord’s and my own there, which I found to be 970l. Thence to Will’s, where Spicer and I eat our dinner of a roasted leg of pork which Will did give us, and after that to the Theatre, where was acted “Beggars’ Bush,” it being very well done; and here the first time that ever I saw women come upon the stage. From thence to my father’s, where I found my mother gone by Bird, the carrier, to Brampton, upon my uncle’s great desire, my aunt being now in despair of life. So home.

What money I own I give
to beggars—the first time
I saw women age.
I found my mother gone
by bird, a great desire
now despair of life.
Om.

Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Thursday 3 January 1660/61.

The perils of indolence

Up early, and being called up to my Lord he did give me many commands in his business. As about taking care to write to my uncle that Mr. Barnewell’s papers should be locked up, in case he should die, he being now suspected to be very ill. Also about consulting with Mr. W. Montagu for the settling of the 4000l. a year that the King had promised my Lord. As also about getting of Mr. George Montagu to be chosen at Huntingdon this next Parliament, &c.
That done he to White Hall stairs with much company, and I with him; where we took water for Lambeth, and there coach for Portsmouth.
The Queen’s things were all in White Hall Court ready to be sent away, and her Majesty ready to be gone an hour after to Hampton Court to-night, and so to be at Portsmouth on Saturday next.
I by water to my office, and there all the morning, and so home to dinner, where I found Pall (my sister) was come; but I do not let her sit down at table with me, which I do at first that she may not expect it hereafter from me. After dinner I to Westminster by water, and there found my brother Spicer at the Leg with all the rest of the Exchequer men (most of whom I now do not know) at dinner. Here I staid and drank with them, and then to Mr. George Montagu about the business of election, and he did give me a piece in gold; so to my Lord’s and got the chest of plate brought to the Exchequer, and my brother Spicer put it into his treasury. So to Will’s with them to a pot of ale, and so parted.
I took a turn in the Hall, and bought the King and Chancellor’s speeches at the dissolving the Parliament last Saturday.
So to my Lord’s, and took my money I brought ‘thither last night and the silver candlesticks, and by coach left the latter at Alderman Backwell’s, I having no use for them, and the former home. There stood a man at our door, when I carried it in, and saw me, which made me a little afeard.
Up to my chamber and wrote letters to Huntingdon and did other business.
This day I lent Sir W. Batten and Captn. Rider my chine of beef for to serve at dinner tomorrow at Trinity House, the Duke of Albemarle being to be there and all the rest of the Brethren, it being a great day for the reading over of their new Charter, which the King hath newly given them.

An ape should be locked up
in case he should die.
Do not sit down,
my brother Leg,
my brother Stick!
The latter I carried and feared—
of all brethren, the king.


Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Wednesday 2 January 1660/61.