K.I. Press's Blog, page 20

Excerpt from "Book of Days" (work in progress)

Doula says, "Go to your happy place," and I try—

The forest we walked in when our dog, now dying, was brand new,

we saw the crane take off from the clear-cut

and— we all got ticks. I forgot that part, when I made it my happy place.

I missed k.d. lang at the Winnipeg Folk Festival this year. But...

I missed k.d. lang at the Winnipeg Folk Festival this year. But luckily folks have put it on YouTube. When I was the publicist for the festival, I had heart attacks about this kind of thing.

Angles (a poem of mine which previously appeared on The Globe and Mail's "In Other Words" book blog

  September, photographing dead bird

a glassed-in porch

the fall

a steady hand, needed

to take this bird

the light is fading; the light has flown

the stillest, patientest

subject, submits

to many angles,

angles exclaiming

wings, feet, bill, the brown

streaks on a yellowish belly

but later, reemerging

in almost dark, in pale yellow

light, the first shot

was the best: straight down

in heavy shadow

September, my father

expected, sudden, the flight

almost missed, the car stopped

for speeding, and we were ten

minutes late. For what? Empty angles.

Empty eyes. Empty endings.

Little is left, just sharp angles

of nose, elbows. Cover the toes

creeping from covers,

skin unlike skin, nails unlike nails.

I am not interested in angles.

Hit glass, the fall

a long time ago.

To stop the shaking,

quit breathing. 

A Grenadier Officer in his Winter Costume1840 — watercolour...

A Grenadier Officer in his Winter Costume

1840 — watercolour over pencil on wove paper

Library and Archives Canada, Acc. No. 1956-62-130

[Untitled], ( Great Britain. ) : apple orchards in the...

[Untitled], ( Great Britain. )  : apple orchards in the Empire

Library and Archives Canada, Acc. No. 1983-27-30

'Basque', a Pyrenean wolf hound, New Brunswick...

'Basque', a Pyrenean wolf hound, New Brunswick 1865

1865 — watercolour over pencil on prepared paper, laid down

Library and Archives Canada, Acc. No. R9266-3927 Peter Winkworth Collection of Canadiana

Library and Archives Canada Archive Search

Library and Archives Canada Archive Search:

When I worked as a picture researcher, I often worked on historical subjects, and I became very familiar with on-line archival photograph databases. If you've read the captions, you'll have notice that the ones I've been posting are from Library and Archives Canada, but I just used that one as an example because it's the database I'm most familiar with. There are tons of them out there. If you like photos, and you like old things, or analogue things, or history, or looking at period costumes or old cars or whatever, then you should explore the many databases out there. Libraries, archives, newspapers, museums, universities, and historical societies are all good sources.

A lot of the photos are public domain, so you can do whatever you want with them (in Canada, any photo taken before 1949 is public domain, but that will be different in each country). You'll have to pay if you want to order a high-res file, of course.

There are similar databases for out there for art, though the copyright is often trickier on that stuff. Next few posts, I'll post a few piececs of art from the Library and Archives Canada database.

Just my lesson in visual appreciation for today.

Unidentified R.C.N.V.R. officer talking with Japanese-Canadian...

Unidentified R.C.N.V.R. officer talking with Japanese-Canadian family during internment of fishing boat.

Canada. Dept. of National Defence/Library and Archives Canada/PA-134096

Bathing suit on Lake Winnipeg shoreline.ca. 1914 / Grand...

Bathing suit on Lake Winnipeg shoreline.

ca. 1914 / Grand Beach, Man.

Library and Archives Canada/PA-181069

Lightning 26 July 1903 / Yorkton, Assiniboia East,...

Lightning

26 July 1903 / Yorkton, Assiniboia East, N.W.T.

Thomas V. Simpson / Canada. Patent and Copyright Office / Library and Archives Canada / PA-028992