Postcards from a Conquistador

December 20, 2008 by Dave Bonta

Hanging around

This entry is part 1 of 16 in the series Postcards from a Conquistador

trees in an icestorm

December 21, 2008 by Dave Bonta

Off the map

This entry is part 2 of 16 in the series Postcards from a Conquistador

hoarfrost on the ridge

December 22, 2008 by Dave Bonta

Waste land

This entry is part 3 of 16 in the series Postcards from a Conquistador

Poem: 'The land gets under my skin and festers. Its native inhabitants dwindle from unknown causes. Old-world weed seeds germinate in the crevasses of my bootprints.'

(For an uncaptioned version of the photo, see here.)

December 23, 2008 by Dave Bonta

Ignorance

This entry is part 4 of 16 in the series Postcards from a Conquistador

Poem: 'The locals are so ignorant, they didn't even know that they were poor until we told them. We put them to work turning mountains upside-down. When the mountains are gone we'll make a fortune farming the wind.'

December 24, 2008 by Dave Bonta

The birds

This entry is part 5 of 16 in the series Postcards from a Conquistador

Poem: 'The forest went halfway to forever. There was a kind of dove so numerous that one flock could darken the sky for a day. It wasn't natural.'

December 25, 2008 by Dave Bonta

Prima materia

This entry is part 6 of 16 in the series Postcards from a Conquistador

Poem: 'Before we brought them more specialized tools, they used to make blades and mirrors from the same black stone: blades for killing, mirrors for capturing souls.'

For a larger version of the photo sans poem, see here.

December 27, 2008 by Dave Bonta

Knight

This entry is part 7 of 16 in the series Postcards from a Conquistador

Poem: 'Grief was the armor I brought with me from Extremadura.'

December 27, 2008 by Dave Bonta

Legend

This entry is part 8 of 16 in the series Postcards from a Conquistador

Poem: 'Because we appeared to have come from where the ocean meets the sky, the Indians thought we were emissaries of the sun. They'll believe anything, these infidels.'

December 29, 2008 by Dave Bonta

Misfit

This entry is part 9 of 16 in the series Postcards from a Conquistador

Poem:

January 2, 2009 by Dave Bonta

Horseman, pass by

This entry is part 10 of 16 in the series Postcards from a Conquistador

Poem: 'The horse I rode in on, a proud Andalusian steed, screamed like a native when it was cornered by that rabble of cooks.'

Replacing yesterday’s installment in the series, which is now the focus of an exciting contest: Name the Strange Roundish Object in the Digital Postcard! See comment thread for details.

About

Via Negativa is a unique experiment in daily, poetic conversation with the living and the dead. Dave Bonta founded the site in 2003 and Luisa A. Igloria joined in 2010. Guest authors contribute as well. Dave writes daily erasure poems to discover the poetry hidden in the Diary of Samuel Pepys. Luisa has been writing and posting a poem a day since November 2010, often in response to Dave’s entries at The Morning Porch. Collections of poems first published at Via Negativa include Luisa’s The Buddha Wonders if She is Having a Mid-Life Crisis and Ode to the Heart Smaller than a Pencil Eraser, and Dave’s Ice Mountain and Breakdown: Banjo Poems. Read more…