Image provided by: Clackamas Community College; Oregon City, OR
About The Clackamas print. (Oregon City, Oregon) 1989-2019 | View Entire Issue (April 22, 1992)
THE CLACKAMAS PRINT NEWS/OPINION April 22,1992 Envirotrekker offers natural education Nominee reads poems by Daphne Hartt Staff Writer Do you enjoy being outdoors? Do you like cruising up and down the river? If so, the Trails End “River of Life” cruise is for you. Jerry Herrmann, of the John Inskeep Enviromental Learning Center, guides the research vessel “Envirotrekker” up and down the Clackamas and Willamette rivers. Every Saturday and Sunday, Herrmann leads a group to many historical sites along the two riv ers. Herrmann discusses the his tory, geology, wildlife and eco nomic development of this area. The itinerary includes some Native American camp sites, Hyas Tumwater (Willamette Falls), Dahl Park, the Corps of Engineers’ Wil lamette Falls Locks, Bumside Park, Simpson and Smurfit paper mills and Magoon’s Landing. Then the “Envirotrekker” ap proaches the Goat Island Heron Rookery, which is amazing this time of year. If you enjoy birding, this would be an excellent opportu nity to see the Great Blue Herons at their prime mating time. Recently, the Print’s photo editor, David VanKeuren, was abroad the “Envirotreker.” VanKeuren comments, “I was very impressed with the Heron popula tion. I guess we hit the island at the right time.” The next point of interest is Black Point Native American pet roglyphs (ancient rock drawings). Here, people can learn about the meanings of particular petroglyphs and get a general idea of what was important to Native Americans. Another feature of the cruise is the spring Chinook migrations. VanKeuren said that many fisher man were “patiently waiting to catch some salmon.” The rest of the trip includes Clackamette Park, Meldrum Bar Jerry Herrmann, director of the John Inskeep Environmental Learning Center, has organized the Envirotrekker program and leads the tours. photo by David VanKeuren Landing, Historic Linn City (West Linn), Hugh Bums Ferry, and then back to Clackamette Park. VanKeuren said that he really enjoyed the cruise and feels that almost anyone would like the ride on the “Envirotrekker.” “People should take an oppor tunity, such as this one, to learn about the history and wildlife of our area. It will give them an appre ciation of their surrounding water ways.” If you would like to explore your surrounding waterways, con tact the ELC at 657-6958, ext 2351. The cost is $9.50 per person. These funds are collected and then used to support research efforts on Ore gon rivers. The “Envirotrekker” leaves ev ery Saturday and Sunday at 4 and 6 p.m. from Sportscraft Boat Ramp in Oregon City. by Heidi Branstator Staff Writer Gary Miranda, a Pulitzer Prize nominee in 1979, made an appear ance at Clackamas April 14, to share some of his poetry and per sonal stories with students and faculty. As she was introducing Mi randa, CCC instructor Diane Aver ill warned the audience that the meanings of his poems often double back. “If you are experiencing his poems for the first time, watch out for the undertow!” she said. Listeners at the Breathing Place and Grace Period, both published by the Princeton Uni versity Press, are the titles of Mi randa’s two books. He read selec tions from both books to the audi ence. Along with writing poetry, Miranda has also translated the works of a German poet, “as well as translated the baby talk of his son Nicholas,” said Averill. Miranda became a father 11 years ago and he compared trying to be apoet and a father at the same time to being in love with two women at once. “Exhilarating for awhile, but after awhile it just gets exhausting,” he said. He wrote poetry for about a year after his son was bom, but then made the decision to quit writing so he could dedicate his time to his family. Miranda began writing poetry his sophomore year Of high school. “I started writing out of survival,” he said. A traumatic experience in his family gave him the need to write down his feelings. “I wrote for five or six years in the closet,” said Miranda. When he was 23 years old, Miranda came out of the closet. He began sending his poetry to magazines and newspapers and found that it was not difficult for him to get his poetry published that way. He remembers the Geor gia Review as the first to print one of his poems. Miranda said “I went through nine years of rejection before my first book was published.” During the years that he wrote poetry, Miranda received many awards, including fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts. He particularly remembers being a young man and getting to go to New York to receive one. Finding things to write about wasn’t often a problem for Mi randa. Many of the poems that he read at CCC were about his child hood, his son, and fishing. “If I weren’t here today, I’d probably be out fishing,” he told the group. Picking up a poem by someone else and using a line that could often “jog things” for Miranda when he needed some inspiration. A poem that describes one of Miranda’s childhood experiences is called “The Horse Chestnut.” It is not only about a tree, but also about the children he grew up with. ■sQary Miranda photo by Allan Ziemke “I fell from one once. Judy Kohl used to put five of them (chestnuts), whole, in her mouth. My brothers ran to tell my mother, ‘It’s Gary, he fell from a tree, but he’s not dead...yet,’” he wrote. Every year, in memory of their father, Miranda and his four brothers get together and hold an annual “fishing derby.” He wrote poems that were about fishing and also about brotherhood. “Their distances are as real as the closeness which separates them,” he philosophizes. Miranda closed with two poems about his son. “When I go to pick him up, he is always standing, as if the world needed a transfusion and he is the only one with the right blood type. I think it must be ‘O’. He says ‘Oh’,” wrote Miranda about his son when he was about one year old. It’s his son’s favor ite poem,” he said. Miranda, who says he is still very much in love with his son, does not regret his decision to quit writing poetry. He does “miss the sensation of when you get a poem and it’s right..! used to get pretty excited when that hap pened,” he said. He hasn’t quit writing com pletely, however. Miranda has now taken to writing essays. When asked if he would take up writing poetry again when his son is grown, he replied, “It’s a possibility.”
