Month: May 2016

Posted on by Dave Bonta

After jousting

Up between four and five, and after dressing myself then to my office to prepare business against the afternoon, where all the morning, and dined at noon at home, where a little angry with my wife for minding nothing now but the dancing-master, having him come twice a day, which is a folly.
Again, to my office. We sat till late, our chief business being the reconciling the business of the pieces of eight mentioned yesterday before the Duke of York, wherein I have got the day, and they are all brought over to what I said, of which I am proud.
Late writing letters, and so home to supper and to bed. Here I found Creed staying for me, and so after supper I staid him all night and lay with me, our great discourse being the folly of our two doting knights, of which I am ashamed.

four in the morning
reconciling the pieces
of what I said

I am proud
our discourse the folly
of two knights


Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Tuesday 12 May 1663.

Posted on by Dave Bonta

Art critic

Up betimes, and by water to Woolwich on board the Royall James, to see in what dispatch she is to be carried about to Chatham. So to the yard a little, and thence on foot to Greenwich, where going I was set upon by a great dogg, who got hold of my garters, and might have done me hurt; but, Lord, to see in what a maze I was, that, having a sword about me, I never thought of it, or had the heart to make use of it, but might, for want of that courage, have been worried.
Took water there and home, and both coming and going did con my lesson on my Ruler to measure timber, which I think I can well undertake now to do.
At home there being Pembleton I danced, and I think shall come on to do something in a little time, and after dinner by coach with Sir W. Pen (setting down his daughter at Clerkenwell), to St. James’s, where we attended the Duke of York: and, among other things, Sir G. Carteret and I had a great dispute about the different value of the pieces of eight rated by Mr. Creed at 4s. and 5d., and by Pitts at 4s. and 9d., which was the greatest husbandry to the King? he persisting that the greatest sum was; which is as ridiculous a piece of ignorance as could be imagined. However, it is to be argued at the Board, and reported to the Duke next week; which I shall do with advantage, I hope.
Thence to the Tangier Committee, where we should have concluded in sending Captain Cuttance and the rest to Tangier to deliberate upon the design of the Mole before they begin to work upon it, but there being not a committee (my Lord intending to be there but was taken up at my Lady Castlemayne’s) I parted and went homeward, after a little discourse with Mr. Pierce the surgeon, who tells me that my Lady Castlemaine hath now got lodgings near the King’s chamber at Court; and that the other day Dr. Clerke and he did dissect two bodies, a man and a woman; before the King, with which the King was highly pleased.
By water and called upon Tom Trice by appointment with Dr. Williams, but the Dr. did not come, it seems by T. Trice’s desire, not thinking he should be at leisure. However, in general we talked of our business, and I do not find that he will come to any lower terms than 150l., which I think I shall not give him but by law, and so we parted, and I called upon Mr. Crumlum, and did give him the 10s. remaining, not laid out of the 5l. I promised him for the school, with which he will buy strings, and golden letters upon the books I did give them. I sat with him and his wife a great while talking, and she is [a] pretty woman, never yet with child, and methinks looks as if her mouth watered now and then upon some of her boys.
Then upon Tom Pepys, the Turner, desiring his father and his letter to Piggott signifying his consent to the selling of his land for the paying of us his money, and so home, and finding Pembleton there we did dance till it was late, and so to supper and to bed.

I am a dog who got hold of art
and worried it

I dispute the value
of pieces rated as great

the ridiculous design of work
in a committee

we who now dissect bodies
and call that art

a man never yet with child
boys desiring a pig


Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Monday 11 May 1663.

Posted on by Luisa A. Igloria

In the View-Master

Nobody asked her
why she still wet herself
sometimes as a child

past the age of toilet
training, why it seared
out and down her legs

like a chemical or a rash
of fire ants. And even if
she’d wanted to confide

in someone, she did not know
how: threats had been made
and hung in the air,

following her like a dark
new twin, an eerie walking
doll, like a plastic double.

She pulled her panties back on
at the sound of Shh, one finger
silencing her lips. Just like

a doll her eyes closed as she
was placed on the table— both
the neighbor boy who cleaned

the yard; and later, the new
uncle showing her a game
they called playing doctor.

Posted on by Dave Bonta

Omen

(Lord’s day). Up betimes, and put on a black cloth suit, with white lynings under all, as the fashion is to wear, to appear under the breeches. So being ready walked to St. James’s, where I sat talking with Mr. Coventry, while he made himself ready, about several businesses of the Navy, and afterwards, the Duke being gone out, he and I walked to White Hall together over the Park, I telling him what had happened to Tom Hater, at which he seems very sorry, but tells me that if it is not made very publique, it will not be necessary to put him away at present, but give him good caution for the time to come. However, he will speak to the Duke about it and know his pleasure.
Parted with him there, and I walked back to St. James’s, and was there at mass, and was forced in the crowd to kneel down; and mass being done, to the King’s Head ordinary, whither I sent for Mr. Creed and there we dined, where many Parliament-men; and most of their talk was about the news from Scotland, that the Bishop of Galloway was besieged in his house by some women, and had like to have been outraged, but I know not how he was secured; which is bad news, and looks just as it did in the beginning of the late troubles. From thence they talked of rebellion; and I perceive they make it their great maxime to be sure to master the City of London, whatever comes of it or from it. After that to some other discourse, and, among other things, talking of the way of ordinaries, that it is very convenient, because a man knows what he hath to pay: one did wish that, among many bad, we could learn two good things of France, which were that we would not think it below the gentleman, or person of honour at a tavern, to bargain for his meat before he eats it; and next, to take no servant without certificate from some friend or gentleman of his good behaviour and abilities.
Hence with Creed into St. James’s Park, and there walked all the afternoon, and thence on foot home, and after a little while at my office walked in the garden with my wife, and so home to supper, and after prayers to bed. My brother Tom supped with me, and should have brought my aunt Ellen with him; she was not free to go abroad.

I put on a black suit
with white lining

and go out like a bad city
of whatever comes

so convenient to bargain on
so free a road


Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Sunday 10 May 1663.

Posted on by Luisa A. Igloria

Secret mother

I pine for a photograph.
In it, my secret mother
is perhaps seventeen,

and I barely one
in her arms. She wears
a veil that covers her head

and falls around her shoulders,
lace cutouts like the puzzle
pieces from this story.

I’m not even sure
I know what it is I want
to know: whether my father,

barely two years married
to my official mother,
took something he

shouldn’t have,
or if it was freely
given. I know

there is
such a picture.
I fingered it often

when I was young,
before I even knew
what was missing.

Posted on by Luisa A. Igloria

Mirage

We let the vines grow wild
beyond the back door;

but in time, even the front
was hard to keep free

of overgrowth. We propped
old rowboats against

the falling-down garage;
broken oars lined

the garden beds. Grass grew
impartially around the space

we once called home. Sometimes
in dreams I brush aside

a curtain of green and step
into a clearing, blinking.

 

In response to Via Negativa: Complementarity.

Posted on by Dave Bonta

Barber shop

Up betimes and to my office, whither sooner than ordinary comes Mr. Hater desiring to speak a word to me alone, which I was from the disorder of his countenance amused at, and so the poor man began telling me that by Providence being the last Lord’s day at a meeting of some Friends upon doing of their duties, they were surprised, and he carried to the Counter, but afterwards released; however, hearing that Sir W. Batten do hear of he thought it good to give me an account of it, lest it might tend to any prejudice to me. I was extraordinary surprised with it, and troubled for him, knowing that now it is out it is impossible for me to conceal it, or keep him in employment under me without danger to myself. I cast about all I could, and did give him the best advice I could, desiring to know if I should promise that he would not for the time to come commit the same, he told me he desired that I would rather forbear to promise that, for he durst not do it, whatever God in His providence shall do with him, and that for my part he did bless God and thank me for all the love and kindness I have shewed him hitherto. I could not without tears in my eyes discourse with him further, but at last did pitch upon telling the truth of the whole to Mr. Coventry as soon as I could, and to that end did use means to prevent Sir W. Batten (who came to town last night) from going to that end to-day, lest he might doe it to Sir G. Carteret or Mr. Coventry before me; which I did prevail and kept him at the office all the morning.
At noon dined at home with a heavy heart for the poor man, and after dinner went out to my brother’s, and thence to Westminster, where at Mr. Jervas’s, my old barber, I did try two or three borders and perriwiggs, meaning to wear one; and yet I have no stomach but that the pains of keeping my hair clean is so great. He trimmed me, and at last I parted, but my mind was almost altered from my first purpose, from the trouble that I foresee will be in wearing them also. Thence by water home and to the office, where busy late, and so home to supper and bed, with my mind much troubled about T. Hater.

telling me about
the bear that came to town
my old barber


Erasure haiku derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Saturday 9 May 1663.

Posted on by Dave Bonta

Personal development

Up very early and to my office, there preparing letters to my father of great import in the settling of our affairs, and putting him upon a way [of] good husbandry, I promising to make out of my own purse him up to 50l. per annum, till either by my uncle Thomas’s death or the fall of the Wardrobe place he be otherwise provided.
That done I by water to the Strand, and there viewed the Queen-Mother’s works at Somersett House, and thence to the new playhouse, but could not get in to see it. So to visit my Lady Jemimah, who is grown much since I saw her; but lacks mightily to be brought into the fashion of the court to set her off.
Thence to the Temple, and there sat till one o’clock reading at Playford’s in Dr. Usher’s ‘Body of Divinity’ his discourse of the Scripture, which is as much, I believe, as is anywhere said by any man, but yet there is room to cavill, if a man would use no faith to the tradition of the Church in which he is born, which I think to be as good an argument as most is brought for many things, and it may be for that among others.
Thence to my brother’s, and there took up my wife and Ashwell to the Theatre Royall, being the second day of its being opened. The house is made with extraordinary good contrivance, and yet hath some faults, as the narrowness of the passages in and out of the Pitt, and the distance from the stage to the boxes, which I am confident cannot hear; but for all other things it is well, only, above all, the musique being below, and most of it sounding under the very stage, there is no hearing of the bases at all, nor very well of the trebles, which sure must be mended.
The play was “The Humerous Lieutenant,” a play that hath little good in it, nor much in the very part which, by the King’s command, Lacy now acts instead of Clun. In the dance, the tall devil’s actions was very pretty.
The play being done, we home by water, having been a little shamed that my wife and woman were in such a pickle, all the ladies being finer and better dressed in the pitt than they used, I think, to be.
To my office to set down this day’s passage, and, though my oath against going to plays do not oblige me against this house, because it was not then in being, yet believing that at the time my meaning was against all publique houses, I am resolved to deny myself the liberty of two plays at Court, which are in arreare to me for the months of March and April, which will more than countervail this excess, so that this month of May is the first that I must claim a liberty of going to a Court play according to my oath.
So home to supper, and at supper comes Pembleton, and afterwards we all up to dancing till late, and so broke up and to bed, and they say that I am like to make a dancer.

I make my death grow
into a room for others

in a narrow pit
there is no play

I must claim liberty
like a dancer


Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Friday 8 May 1663.

Posted on by Luisa A. Igloria

Home Movies

Our neighbor’s daughter Doris and I were flower girls. It was my aunt’s wedding. Only, twenty-eight years later I learned she was both my aunt and my mother. I was confused, but I would have been more confused back then. Doris was nine and I was seven. We were allowed to wear lipstick for the wedding. She knew all about it— how you were supposed to press your lips together after the stretch and pucker; then blot the excess off on tissue paper. How she said to watch and see, brides often fainted midway through the ceremony. How of course you’d run out of air, what with all that ivory lace and satin tightly cinched around a growing waistline.

*

On my own wedding day no coterie of girls my age, nor friends, came to giggle and fuss, powder and pencil, fill in the outlines of me. Instead there were Judith and Emily, two women my father knew from work, who came with their pots and pancakes, their lipsticks and feathered blushes. What did I know? I did not own any myself. They braided my hair and lay the plait across the top of my head. Eighteen, but I was a cross between milkmaid and novice: flushed cheeks, severe high-collared gown, long sleeves buttoned at the wrists. Beautiful, they pronounced. I looked, but didn’t see anyone I recognized.

*

At the reception, one of father’s wealthy cousins paid the whole tab on the open bar. I heard there was a drunken brawl afterward in the parking lot. The details don’t even matter— such things often began with something simple. Ukininam; lukdit mo. Fuck you; dickhead. The piano kept on playing.

*

In the money dance, the guests come up with bills and silver seamstress’ pins. There is some sort of contest to see which side— the groom’s or bride’s— will paper them with the most money. We sprout shingles, little pennants on sleeves, my skirt, my veil. As the music plays we grow uneven armor, a blue-green covering shot through with many gaping holes.

Posted on by Dave Bonta

Complementarity

Up betimes and to my office awhile, and then by water with my wife, leaving her at the new Exchange, and I to see Dr. Williams, and spoke with him about my business with Tom Trice, and so to my brother’s, who I find very careful now-a-days, more than ordinary in his business and like to do well. From thence to Westminster, and there up and down from the Hall to the Lobby, the Parliament sitting. So by coach to my Lord Crew’s, and there dined with him. He tells me of the order the House of Commons have made for the drawing an Act for the rendering none capable of preferment or employment in the State, but who have been loyall and constant to the King and Church; which will be fatal to a great many, and makes me doubt lest I myself, with all my innocence during the late times, should be brought in, being employed in the Exchequer; but, I hope, God will provide for me.
This day the new Theatre Royal begins to act with scenes the Humourous Lieutenant, but I have not time to see it, nor could stay to see my Lady Jemimah lately come to town, and who was here in the house, but dined above with her grandmother. But taking my wife at my brother’s home by coach, and the officers being at Deptford at a Pay we had no office, but I took my wife by water and so spent the evening, and so home with great pleasure to supper, and then to bed.
Sir Thomas Crew this day tells me that the Queen, hearing that there was 40,000l. per annum brought into her account among the other expences of the Crown to the Committee of Parliament, she took order to let them know that she hath yet for the payment of her whole family received but 4,000l., which is a notable act of spirit, and I believe is true.

ice and water exchange days
like a parliament of one

doubt will provide a new home
for that which I believe is true


Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Thursday 7 May 1663.