an erasure poem from an excerpt of “Twenty Thousand Leauges Under The Sea” by Jules Verne

The light                                     astonished me.
           And     I      distinguished
gradations of
                                                           obscurity.
Truly,
           the impression
                                           of the sun.

Shall I be believed when I say

I was     broad daylight           sown with the
impalpable dust of
                                       degrees?

Darkness should           help,               outlined
in the distance—a tapestry         at
    ten in the morning.
                                        The touch of         light
as through a prism.

Shell-                  shaded     edges,   a feast for
complication:               green, yellow, orange,
violet, indigo and blue. In one word:

                         admiration.

I                                         want      better. (I talk
to myself,           more air            than     wise.)
Various         clusters of                   brilliant

          grief           prickle             under
me,
                                            inexhaustible.

But we were bound to walk, so we went on,
           a band of         us,    in sun and fiery
   darkness.