Purveyors of fine poetry since 2003.
Starting January 1, 2013, this is a daily exercise in erasure poetry based on the 17th-century Diary of Samuel Pepys. Why this work? Its language is admirably concrete, with recurring words and turns of phrase shaped by the exigencies of Pepys’ original shorthand. In thought and content it stands at the beginning of the modern era: the first truly confessional piece of literature by a man equally fascinated by religion and science, and whose curiosity encompassed everything from music-making and theater to mathematics, accounting, politics, fashion, and carnal pleasures. And last but not least, the 1899 Wheatley edition is available online in a website that is really a model for how to present literature on the web. It was my desire to read it day by day that led to this project, which I view not as erasure but as discovery—a kind of deep (mis)reading. Pepys was a sexual predator and an architect of British colonialism who personally profited off the slave trade, so any less than an engaged, critical reading of the diary, in this day and age, would be irresponsible. From a secret diary, these are the secret poems hidden even from the author himself.
I began compiling the erasures into free ebooks in 2017. Here are 1664, 1665, 1666, 1667, 1668 and 1669, and from my second attempt, here are 1660 and 1661.
I bade adieu to a rose,
gave paper to a paper,
drank farewell and drank to one
that would have a place at sea—a seal
who had a great desire to go to sea—
and I went home and sat there
talking old, playing old
till it was time to go lay
in a fine urn.
Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Saturday 17 March 1659/60.
Troubled with abundance of sea,
land going to water,
I rent a raft and eat tongue,
a fat joy in the chapel Chance.
I study how this day dissolved
without fire, sad in mind.
Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Friday 16 March 1659/60.
Packing up, I took leave
of my old axe
and bought a bit of salmon
for the sun.
I promise to give all
that I have to the brave.
I am not discontented
with my sleep.
Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Thursday 15 March 1659/60.
O infinity of papers, give a piece of me
to the surgeon, to soldiers, to the town
where I seem a dull heavy man.
I had a mind to some cabbage,
I sent for some and had it.
A strange thing how I am
already in the book
of rain and night.
Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Wednesday 14 March 1659/60.
Rain.
I got up early.
I was deputy to trouble;
I could not talk.
A place other
than the void tonight?
I go out without
any qualification.
Doubt will be
the end of me.
Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Tuesday 13 March 1659/60.
The wench and I
lay talking a while:
I could exchange
books for a horse
and my wife for
a spoonful of honey.
Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Monday 12 March 1659/60.
All things go to sea;
I went to fat.
All things wash to bed,
I cold and coughing.
Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Sunday 11 March 1659/60.
We let treasure rest—
sun on fish.
We breakfast on trouble,
continue in absence,
say no to fox and fool
and so go knitting: to be.
Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Saturday 10 March 1659/60.
In a painted sea, what to write?
A letter taking tomorrow back?
But we sat and drank till drunk
and began to talk foolishly.
How to change?
I drink drink drink, for I find
it puts me out of order
in the name of liberty,
king for a day.
Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Friday 9 March 1659/60.
White-hot and a black burn:
mind and face.
I look for direction,
see money and a petticoat.
I have taken up with that dog,
that plenipotentiary death.
What a great profit I made.
How I cheated.
Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Thursday 8 March 1659/60.