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[notlguy]

Added the poem "Under the Falls” by James Penha in which he  recalls "being unmade as a child and made as a man by the Maid of the Mist." https://niagarapoetry.ca/2023/01/15/under/

[notlguy]

170 years ago, in 1847, Henry Howard Brownell published a book imaginatively titled "Poems" In it was the poem "Niagara" See it here  http://niagarapoetry.ca/2017/11/27/niagara-henry-howard-brownell/

[notlguy]

The Niagara Gorge (as seen from the Whirlpool Cable Car) by Father James B. Dollard - Niagara Falls Poetry Project

A poem describing the crossing of the Niagara Gorge & Whirlpool on the Spanish Aero-car, which dangles in the air above the whirlpool

[niagarapoetry]

Niagara by Father James B. Dollard - Niagara Falls Poetry Project

A spiritual poem describing Niagara Falls in relation to classical historical time periods

Incessantly thy waters thus have rolled    Through the dim aeons of unmeasured Time,    While God was fashioning His work sublime, Or ere His sulphurous forges could grow cold! When Egypt loved Osiris and retold    His charmed birth from out Nilotic slime,    When Chaldea read the stars, and Homer’s rhyme Was yet undreamt – Niagara thundered bold. So night and day throughout coverging years    Hoarse voices rose above the hissing spray        Scaring the lonely Indian on the shore! These bellowing chasms harbored nameless fears –    Demons and dragons in contorted play        Lashing the frightened waters evermore!

[niagarapoetry]

Loretto Convent, Niagara Falls by Father James B. Dollard

Loretto Convent, Niagara Falls by Father James B. Dollard

Loretto Convent, c1910

I look below; Niagara’s torrent white Is eager hurrying to the dread abyss; I hear its thunder as the waters hiss Over the awful brink, to plunge from sight In seething spray! Confusion at its height Is pictured there; but even on convent walls The radiant glow of even gently falls And all is harmony and holy quiet! Like some blest soul on Heaven that ever dreams, Bending its chastened look beyond the skies, Regardless of the tumults of the world; So, crowned with peace this cloistered abbey seems, And on its peerless heights serene doth rise, While deep below the raging floods are hurled!

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[notlguy]

Niagara by Anonymous

I stood within a vision's spell; I saw, I heard. The liquid thunder Went pouring to its foaming hell, And it fell, Ever, ever fell, Into that invisible abyss that opened under. I stood upon a speck of ground; Before me fell a stormy ocean. I was like a captive bound; And around A universe of sound Troubled the heavens with ever-quivering motion. Down, down forever - down, down forever, Something…

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[notlguy]

The Chippawa Creek by Anonymous

The Chippawa Creek by Anonymous

As the Chippawa Creek crept along by its banks, Or, as poets would say, “was a-flowing,” Though a fish that had spent his whole life in its stream Could scarce tell you which way it was going, And this fine gold-laced frog leaped lively about, Quite gay in his gaudy green coat, Or the large one in brown made the echoes resound With the sound of his harsh-croaking throat: In some places it widened…

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[notlguy]

Niagara Mornings Quick Version

During the course of 2007 I took a picture of Niagara Falls from the same spot, at about the same time of morning. I have now compiled them into this fast pa...

Niagara Mornings - a year of Niagara Falls in 3 minutes

[notlguy]

Clayton Hawkins, Matt Hughes & Myself in our Rise Against Bullying t-shirts

[notlguy]

World Naked Gardening Day

The offending picture!

World Naked Gardening Day fell on May 4, this year. A little early, I feel, but in the spirit of the day I took my clothes off and my wife Louise took a couple of pictures of me with a rhubarb leaf strategically placed. As I am somewhat of an idiot, I then proceeded to post the picture to Facebook. Interesting what happened.

I ended up with 20 likes, 49 comments, and one share. Comments ranged from "Oh my god" to bible quotes to "what the heck were you thinking" to expressions of admiration for being so free and easy, sort of an expected mix for this sort of post.

What was unexpected, however, was a phone call that I received a couple of days later. I am chair of a local library board, and one of the board members called and said how embarrassed he had been when a friend of his had slapped the picture down in front of him and said "That's you board chair?" I was given a lecture on the proprieties of being a chair, and the responsibilities that go along with it.  (I did offer to resign, but he quickly backpedalled and said that wasn't necessary).

 In my workplace, none of the people in the department that I supervise mentioned anything, although my boss and a couple of co-managers did make joking comments. I later learned that one staff member had put the picture up with a rude comment, and the others made her take it down because they didn't want to encourage me.

Justin's take on the picture

My daughter lit into me about how disgusting the picture was and that she had reported it to Facebook as inappropriate, my older son created a meme out of it (at side) and said if |I hadn't already totally messed up his life this would have done it. My youngest son just rolled his eyes as he's come to expect his father to do silly things.

Somehow, the picture ended up in the Summer 2013 edition of Going Natural, the magazine of the Federation of Canadian Naturists (OK, I did submit it, I confess). When I announced that on Facebook, I got 27 likes and 19 comments - a number were just conversational ones, but that's still quite a number. They were all of the tolerantly amused variety.

Fast forward to October - I was invited to go sailing with a friend. Although it was cloudy and sort of miserable, there was a very brief period of sunshine.  As I don't go sailing very often, I thought it would be a great idea to take my clothes off & get a picture of nude sailing. My friend wasn't very happy about it, but did agree to take a picture as long as I put my clothes on in a hurry. That's fine, as I don't want to impose my growing fondness for naturism on others.

The cropped Facebook version

The original "keeping a look-out" picture 

I decided to crop it and add it to Facebook, so that I wouldn't receive the criticism that I might otherwise have got. I ended up with 8 likes and 16 comments - pretty well all of the tolerantly amused variety, including one from the photographer mentioning how he'd kept his eyes shut for the photography session!  I was surprised, though, to receive a phone call from the very same board member, and although he talked about something else dealing with board business, I knew that he had heard about the picture and this was his subtle way of reminding me of my responsibilities.

I'm really intrigued by the reactions that people have - those that know me and tolerate my often weird sense of humour tend to just laugh at the pictures and say "what's he going to do next," while others question my judgement. I agree, I am overweight and lots of people don't find that attractive, but that's who I am.

I was talking with a couple of good friends about the board member and his reactions. My question to them - which did they think I would choose between being a board chair with suit & tie & following all the proprieties or to be free to do the naturism/nudism thing? Both quickly agreed that I would choose the naturism option.

Apparently, the older I get, the less inhibited I become. I'm never sure what's going to happen next!

[notlguy]

Society for Ethics in Librarianship

So eons ago, back when I was a brand spanking new, idealistic librarian, I ran across the Society of Ethics in Librarianship. It was based in Britain, and cost £10 to join. Anticipating scintillating conversation with like-minded colleagues, I got an international money order and sent it off.

Here I sit, 30 years later, still waiting to hear back from them. I'm assuming the letter was lost in the mail, any other explanation would shatter my naive belief that there are ethics in the Society of Ethics in Librarianship. Crap.

[notlguy]

Most difficult reference questions

I've been a reference librarian for the better part of 3 decades now, and am sometimes asked to tell about the most difficult reference question that I've ever had. Some that were difficult in the pre-internet age are a breeze now, others still take time to winnow through much information, much of it containing errors, propaganda of one type of another, or prevarications. However, of all the questions that have been difficult, one from near the beginning of my career still stands out head and shoulders above the others.

It began, as so many of my questions have done, with the phone on the reference desk ringing. "Reference Department, may I help you?" I answered, as on so many, many occasions over the years. "If I ask you a question about a disease will you tell me exactly what it is and what happens?" said a youngish male voice on the other end of the line. "As long as I can find information on it I will," I relied, with a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. "I'm 15 years old and I'm sick with a disease. I think it's called ______ (I honestly cannot remember what it was this many years later). My parents and my doctor won't talk to me about it, but I overheard my parents mention it when they didn't know I was there." "Okay, let me check on it," I replied, and spent a few minutes looking in our standard medical sources. It didn't appear in them, so I then went to The Physician's Guide to Rare Diseases where a 3/4 page entry appeared. As I had feared, it was not good, with a survival rate of 0%, most people dying within 6-8 months of diagnosis. At this point, conflicting emotions and philosophies whirled around in my head - anger towards the doctor and parents for putting me in this position, sorrow for the boy, uncertainty about whether to tell him or somehow fob him off with half-truths and mumbo-jumbo, dread of having to tell him, and so forth. In the end, I decided that he had called the library looking for specific information, and however uncomfortable and emotional it may be for both of us, I owed it to him, to the library, the profession, and my ethical values to tell him the truth. When I got  back on the line with him, I read him the layman's summary of it, and then asked if he understood what I had just read. "It means I'm going to die soon, doesn't it?" he asked. "It does seem to say that," I replied, "but it is something that you should discuss as soon as you can with your parents and your doctor to make sure that is actually what you have, and there may be other treatments that are being developed that aren't listed in the book." "I figured it was something like that," he said, "just by the way they've been acting & avoiding my questions. Thank you so much for being honest with me. Now I'll be able to talk to them about it & tell them I know what's happening, and hopefully we can get back to being normal." As I hung up the phone, I went and took an unscheduled mental health break and thought about this question, as I have done many times over the years.  Anger at the parents and doctors is still there, there is always the question of did he have the disease and succumb to it, but always I go back to the relief in his voice when I told him what the disease was and its prognosis, and the knowledge that I did whatever small part I could to help him in what I presume were his final days. With the knowledge that he then had came a power over his disease, and a base to communicate with his doctor and parents.

[notlguy]

WHERE WOULD YOU MOST LIKE TO VISIT ON YOUR PLANET?

your place

[notlguy]

Brink of falls shortly after dawn, taken by Andrew Porteus

[notlguy]

Keep passing the open windows.

Hotel New Hampshire by John Irving