Purveyors of fine poetry since 2003.
To eat from a platter of whole fish, head intact,
we are told never to flip it over.
Instead, after loosing all flesh
from one side, take hold of the tail
and lift the exposed undergirding of bones,
then snap it clean at the base of the head.
Fortune supposedly smiles at the one who can work
with industry and restraint to dissect
the layers of a gift, who honors all things that once
suspended, fragile as a leaf on the crest of a wave.
Slept long to-day till Sir J. Minnes and Sir W. Batten were set out towards Portsmouth before I rose, and Sir G. Carteret came to the office to speak with me before I was up. So I started up and down to him. By and by we sat, Mr. Coventry and I (Sir G. Carteret being gone), and among other things, Field and Stint did come, and received the 41l. given him by the judgement against me and Harry Kem; and we did also sign bonds in 500l. to stand to the award of Mr. Porter and Smith for the rest: which, however, I did not sign to till I got Mr. Coventry to go up with me to Sir W. Pen; and he did promise me before him to bear his share in what should be awarded, and both concluded that Sir W. Batten would do no less. At noon broke up and dined with my wife, and then to the office again, and there made an end of last night’s examination, and got my study there made very clean and put in order, and then to write by the post, among other letters one to Sir W. Batten about this day’s work with Field, desiring his promise also. The letter I have caused to be entered in our public book of letters. So home to supper and to bed.
a mouth of judgement against me
an oven to bear
broke by the day’s work
I enter our book
of a bed
Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Saturday 13 December 1662.
From a very hard frost, when I wake, I find a very great thaw, and my house overflown with it, which vexed me.
At the office and home, doing business all the morning. Then dined with my wife and sat talking with her all the afternoon, and then to the office, and there examining my copy of Mr. Holland’s book till 10 at night, and so home to supper and bed.
from my house
overflow of talk
the land at night
Erasure haiku derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Friday 12 December 1662.
“Everywhere is heart-rending wail,
everywhere consternation, and death
in a thousand shapes…” ~ Virgil
Lay back down in the earth
next to the stones and roots—
A wind has blown open all
the doors of the house.
Cabinet doors have come
unhinged; ripped floorboards
have upended the furniture.
No one can speak directly
of what happened here.
But we cannot set a table
straight again. It hurts
to lie in the grass,
the night with its thousand
perforations engulfing you.
In response to Via Negativa: Taking the Field.
Up, it being a great frost upon the snow, and we sat all the morning upon Mr. Creed’s accounts, wherein I did him some service and some disservice. At noon he dined with me, and we sat all the afternoon together, discoursing of ways to get money, which I am now giving myself wholly up to, and in the evening he went away and I to my office, concluding all matters concerning our great letter so long in doing to my Lord Treasurer, till almost one in the morning, and then home with my mind much eased, and so to bed.
I eat snow and count
all the ways to get money
I am giving myself
wholly up to matter
Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Thursday 11 December 1662.
“The mind going/ over and over things, not knowing what to do/ with the world…” ~ Rick Barot
Is it possible to know before something happens?
Subterranean current, small worm of insight, the hair
rising along the arm in anticipation of a wound.
What constitutes portent? The pink heart
of a rubber eraser carries the smell
of burning asphalt. Peeled
hard-boiled eggs, or the emanations
of a volcano? The mirror refuses
to divulge the hour
of your death. It is clarity sought
after all when you give the fortune teller
what she wants, but keep paying in installments
every time you dream of teeth, every time
you buy a new umbrella though there are
more than a dozen hanging on the railing.
This morning rose, receiving a messenger from Sir G. Carteret and a letter from Mr. Coventry, one contrary to another, about our letter to my Lord Treasurer, at which I am troubled, but I went to Sir George, and being desirous to please both, I think I have found out a way to do it. So back to the office with Sir J. Minnes, in his coach, but so great a snow that we could hardly pass the streets. So we and Sir W. Batten to the office, and there did discourse of Mr. Creed’s accounts, and I fear it will be a good while before we shall go through them, and many things we meet with, all of difficulty. Then to the Dolphin, where Sir J. Minnes, Sir W. Batten, and I, did treat the Auditors of the Exchequer, Auditors Wood and Beale, and hither come Sir G. Carteret to us. We had a good dinner, cost us 5l. and 6s., whereof my share 26s., and after dinner did discourse of our salarys and other matters, which I think now they will allow.
Thence home, and there I found our new cook-mayde Susan come, who is recommended to us by my wife’s brother, for which I like her never the better, but being a good well-looked lass, I am willing to try, and Jane begins to take upon her as a chamber-mayde. So to the office, where late putting papers and my books and businesses in order, it being very cold, and so home to supper.
this rose in the snow
I fear it will be a while
before we meet
Erasure haiku derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Wednesday 10 December 1662.
The last thing in your mouth:
a spoonful of scrambled egg.
Before that, the speckled loaf
of store-bought bread floated away
out the window, never
to be seen again. We fed
torn newspapers to a stove
of tin so sparks could make
little accords
with the rain-brushed night.
We did not get to say a proper
goodbye. We could have spun
a record and used that last
little loop of time.
Parables instruct; refusal
is more truthful.
Lay long with my wife, contenting her about the business of Gosnell’s going, and I perceive she will be contented as well as myself, and so to the office, and after sitting all the morning in hopes to have Mr. Coventry dine with me, he was forced to go to White Hall, and so I dined with my own company only, taking Mr. Hater home with me, but he, poor man, was not very well, and so could not eat any thing. After dinner staid within all the afternoon, being vexed in my mind about the going away of Sarah this afternoon, who cried mightily, and so was I ready to do, and Jane did also, and then anon went Gosnell away, which did trouble me too; though upon many considerations, it is better that I am rid of the charge. All together makes my house appear to me very lonely, which troubles me much, and in a melancholy humour I went to the office, and there about business sat till I was called to Sir G. Carteret at the Treasury office about my Lord Treasurer’s letter, wherein he puts me to a new trouble to write it over again. So home and late with Sir John Minnes at the office looking over Mr. Creed’s accounts, and then home and to supper, and my wife and I melancholy to bed.
her mind going is no trouble to her
which troubles me
and puts me to looking
over accounts
Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Tuesday 9 December 1662.
Up, and carrying Gosnell by coach, set her down at Temple Barr, she going about business of hers today. By the way she was telling me how Balty did tell her that my wife did go every day in the week to Court and plays, and that she should have liberty of going abroad as often as she pleased, and many other lies, which I am vexed at, and I doubt the wench did come in some expectation of, which troubles me.
So to the Duke and Mr. Coventry, and alone, the rest being at a Pay and elsewhere, and alone with Mr. Coventry I did read over our letter to my Lord Treasurer, which I think now is done as well as it can be. Then to my Lord Sandwich’s, and there spent the rest of the morning in making up my Lord’s accounts with Mr. Moore, and then dined with Mr. Moore and Battersby his friend, very well and merry, and good discourse. Then into the Park, to see them slide with their skeates, which is very pretty. And so to the Duke’s, where the Committee for Tangier met: and here we sat down all with him at a table, and had much good discourse about the business, and is to my great content. That done, I hearing what play it was that is to be acted before the King to-night, I would not stay, but home by coach, where I find my wife troubled about Gosnell, who brings word that her uncle, justice Jiggins, requires her to come three times a week to him, to follow some business that her mother intrusts her withall, and that, unless she may have that leisure given her, he will not have her take any place; for which we are both troubled, but there is no help for it, and believing it to be a good providence of God to prevent my running behindhand in the world, I am somewhat contented therewith, and shall make my wife so, who, poor wretch, I know will consider of things, though in good earnest the privacy of her life must needs be irksome to her. So I made Gosnell and we sit up looking over the book of Dances till 12 at night, not observing how the time went, and so to prayers and to bed.
going about business
every day in the week
I see them slide
what jig requires us
to run the world?
what contented life irks?
I sit looking over
the book of dances
serving time
Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Monday 8 December 1662.