New Stockings

Sunday. Drank my morning draft at Harper’s, and bought a pair of gloves there. So to Mr. G. Montagu, and told him what I had received from Dover, about his business likely to be chosen there.
So home and thence with my wife towards my father’s. She went thither, I to Mr. Crew’s, where I dined and my Lord at my Lord Montagu of Boughton in Little Queen Street.
In the afternoon to Mr. Mossum’s with Mr. Moore, and we sat in Mr. Butler’s pew. Then to Whitehall looking for my Lord but in vain, and back again to Mr. Crew’s where I found him and did give him letters. Among others some simple ones from our Lieutenant, Lieut. Lambert to him and myself, which made Mr. Crew and us all laugh. I went to my father’s to tell him that I would not come to supper, and so after my business done at Mr. Crew’s I went home and my wife within a little while after me.
My mind all this while full of thoughts for my place of Clerk of the Acts.

Love is like hose here
on Little Queen Street
to a vain and simple lieutenant
with a mind full of lace.


Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Sunday 24 June 1660.

I do not like the word never:

Broken, a mirror reflects
light that strikes its many
surfaces as well as the unmarred.

Women will gather up the shards,
file their edges smooth and anchor them,
embroidering along the hems of garments

these bits of sun, of tarnished sparkle.
And what of fallen flowers? They might
never be returned to the branch,

yet see how the wind,
the birds conspire to play,
make bids for immortality.

 

In response to Via Negativa: Leaving.

The King’s Evil

By water with Mr. Hill towards my Lord’s lodging and so to my Lord. With him to Whitehall, where I left him and went to Mr. Holmes to deliver him the horse of Dixwell’s that had staid there fourteen days at the Bell.
So to my Lord’s lodgings, where Tom Guy came to me, and there staid to see the King touch people for the King’s evil. But he did not come at all, it rayned so; and the poor people were forced to stand all the morning in the rain in the garden. Afterward he touched them in the Banquetting-house.
With my Lord, to my Lord Frezendorfe’s, where he dined to-day. Where he told me that he had obtained a promise of the Clerk of the Acts place for me, at which I was glad.
Met with Mr. Chetwind, and dined with him at Hargrave’s, the Cornchandler, in St. Martin’s Lane, where a good dinner, where he showed me some good pictures, and an instrument he called an Angelique. With him to London, changing all my Dutch money at Backwell’s for English, and then to Cardinal’s Cap, where he and the City Remembrancer who paid for all.
Back to Westminster, where my Lord was, and discoursed with him awhile about his family affairs. So he went away, I home and wrote letters into the country, and to bed.

I went to the well to see
the king touch people
for the king’s evil.
The poor people stand
all morning in the rain,
the wind in the corn
changing all remembrance
into country.


Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Saturday 23 June 1660.

Solar Flair

To my Lord, where much business. With him to White Hall, where the Duke of York not being up, we walked a good while in the Shield Gallery. Mr. Hill (who for these two or three days hath constantly attended my Lord) told me of an offer of 500l. for a Baronet’s dignity, which I told my Lord of in the balcone in this gallery, and he said he would think of it.
I to my Lord’s and gave order for horses to be got to draw my Lord’s great coach to Mr. Crew’s.
Mr. Morrice the upholsterer came himself to-day to take notice what furniture we lack for our lodgings at Whitehall.
My dear friend Mr. Fuller of Twickenham and I dined alone at the Sun Tavern, where he told me how he had the grant of being Dean of St. Patrick’s, in Ireland; and I told him my condition, and both rejoiced one for another.
Thence to my Lord’s, and had the great coach to Brigham’s, who went with me to the Half Moon, and gave me a can of good julep, and told me how my Lady Monk deals with him and others for their places, asking him 500l., though he was formerly the King’s coach-maker, and sworn to it.
My Lord abroad, and I to my house and set things in a little order there. So with Mr. Moore to my father’s, I staying with Mrs. Turner who stood at her door as I passed. Among other things she told me for certain how my old Lady Middlesex beshit herself the other day in the presence of the King, and people took notice of it. Thence called at my father’s, and so to Mr. Crew’s, where Mr. Hetley had sent a letter for me, and two pair of silk stockings, one for W. Howe, and the other for me.
To Sir H. Wright’s to my Lord, where he, was, and took direction about business, and so by link home about 11 o’clock.
To bed, the first time since my coming from sea, in my own house, for which God be praised.

The upholsterer came
to take furniture for the sun:
a half moon, the king’s worn door
and a silk clock.


Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Friday 22 June 1660.

Apogee, Perigee

—the tracks that bodies cut
across the heavens and are mimicked
on this earth: I used to worry

that I couldn’t stop the rush
forward and away; everything
I tried to build, tether,

coax to stay— Helpless
in the pendulum swing
from love to loss

and back again, skies alternating
mild and azure, then lit like wicks
aflame— Cups and bowls

drying on the sink, empty
at the moment, know there is
a shape for every hunger.

 

In response to thus: devour.

Philanthropist

To my Lord, much business. With him to the Council Chamber, where he was sworn; and the charge of his being admitted Privy Counsellor is 26l..
To the Dog Tavern at Westminster, where Murford with Captain Curle and two friends of theirs went to drink. Captain Curle, late of the Maria, gave me five pieces in gold and a silver can for my wife for the Commission I did give him this day for his ship, dated April 20, 1660 last.
Thence to the Parliament door and came to Mr. Crew’s to dinner with my Lord, and with my Lord to see the great Wardrobe, where Mr. Townsend brought us to the governor of some poor children in tawny clothes; who had been maintained there these eleven years, which put my Lord to a stand how to dispose of them, that he may have the house for his use. The children did sing finely, and my Lord did bid me give them five pieces in gold at his going away.
Thence back to White Hall, where, the King being gone abroad, my Lord and I walked a great while discoursing of the simplicity of the Protector, in his losing all that his father had left him. My Lord told me, that the last words that he parted with the Protector with (when he went to the Sound), were, that he should rejoice more to see him in his grave at his return home, than that he should give way to such things as were then in hatching, and afterwards did ruin him: and the Protector said, that whatever G. Montagu, my Lord Broghill, Jones, and the Secretary, would have him to do, he would do it, be it what it would. Thence to my wife, meeting Mr. Blagrave, who went home with me, and did give me a lesson upon the flageolet, and handselled my silver can with my wife and me.
To my father’s, where Sir Thomas Honeywood and his family were come of a sudden, and so we forced to lie all together in a little chamber, three stories high.

With the dog to see some poor children
in tawny clothes sing.
I give them five pieces in gold,
a sound lesson upon the flag
and a silver can of ham three stories high.


Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Thursday 21 June 1660.

Dear Muse,

Oh I was yours before you
laid eyes on me, my course

predicted by a white wing
adrift: lone vessel voyaging,

voyaging— Sometimes I lose
sight of the latitudes and turn

the rudder wrong ways. No one,
least of all you, will come

to rescue me, though I am
your prodigy. Under the moon

I do my best to persevere,
my brilliant darling—

The stars so bright
on the surface of the well,

your fingers clasped
so beautifully, the way

you lead a body
into the dance.

 

In response to Via Negativa: Fee.

Poison Pen

Up by 4 in the morning to write letters to sea and a commission for him that Murford solicited for.
Called on by Captain Sparling, who did give me my Dutch money again, and so much as he had changed into English money, by which my mind was eased of a great deal of trouble. Some other sea captains. I did give them a good morning draught, and so to my Lord (who lay long in bed this day, because he came home late from supper with the King). With my Lord to the Parliament House, and, after that, with him to General Monk’s, where he dined at the Cock-pit. I home and dined with my wife, now making all things ready there again.
Thence to my Lady Pickering, who did give me the best intelligence about the Wardrobe. Afterwards to the Cockpit to my Lord with Mr. Townsend, one formerly and now again to be employed as Deputy of the Wardrobe.
Thence to the Admiralty, and despatched away Mr. Cooke to sea; whose business was a letter from my Lord about Mr. G. Montagu to be chosen as a Parliament-man in my Lord’s room at Dover; and another to the Vice- Admiral to give my Lord a constant account of all things in the fleet, merely that he may thereby keep up his power there; another letter to Captn. Cuttance to send the barge that brought the King on shore, to Hinchingbroke by Lynne.
To my own house, meeting G. Vines, and drank with him at Charing Cross, now the King’s Head Tavern.
With my wife to my father’s, where met with Swan, an old hypocrite, and with him, his friend and my father, and my cozen Scott to the Bear Tavern. To my father’s and to bed.

I write letters to some other sea,
who lay long in bed—
one formerly and now again
to be employed as the sea—
about the admiral, an old hypocrite.


Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Wednesday 20 June 1660.