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.
A boy is going to the king.
I enter his name in my book.
How many churches have
a barrel of pickled oysters?
Open the barber’s hands with
his own hands: a close business.
This letter is like a house—
a very well writ one.
Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Saturday 21 April 1660.
My window was infinite as a ring.
My head ached.
Sitting backwards, I heard a dove
speak with the day.
Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Friday 20 April 1660.
A great burr did vex me in my hose.
A dove came on board whom
I do not know; it came to go.
I wrap myself up in a dry sheet.
Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Thursday 19 April 1660.
I stay, I cannot stay
in my own head.
I have made more light
than the Lord
and resolve to sit
and resolve to make way
and be undone.
Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Wednesday 18 April 1660.
I command a pleasant plain,
as plain as night:
an open mind, clear
thoughts and happy.
No service in keeping
quiet, I talk
to bring a fresh sense
of the pleasure of life.
Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Tuesday 17 April 1660.
Lock me to sleep,
discharge me numb,
set me in writing—
and so to be.
Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Monday 16 April 1660.
The barber put my clothes on
and they look upon him as a cook.
All ate a great deal of nothing.
Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Sunday 15 April 1660.
*
Update: A reader (who may wish to remain anonymous; she can out herself in the comments if she wants to) emailed me with an alternate erasure of today’s Pepys. I wish I’d written this myself!
Up, and trimmed below,
He pleased himself
Openly at table
And at night
Privately in the room.
One witnessed the proceedings —
Tower held high — but all will
Come to nothing.
a rank, thin life I live
nothing to care for but myself
sea surge in a drowned mouth
capable of being what I do
Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Saturday 14 April 1660.
A wind set my things
in better order, and I ached
for a serious purpose.
The rain coming
upon my bed, I went
and lay with the wind,
rocking till ten.
Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Friday 13 April 1660.
Be a stranger.
In the afternoon, who cons night?
Let my hen tell me
when the mess paid off.
Let be.
Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Thursday 12 April 1660.