Image provided by: Clackamas Community College; Oregon City, OR
About The Clackamas print. (Oregon City, Oregon) 1989-2019 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 5, 2001)
he 7 Feature CI ac I camas P rìnt WedNEsdAy, D ecem Ò er Poetry class offers advice, not structure CRYSTAL CASTLEMAN Contributing Writer Diane Averill, a Clackamas iglish instructor, feels that itentimes people think of po- ry as simply what they are |ught in the early years of Igh school, and she wants jdents to see poetry in a new . poets are taught to be ce, say nice things, think nice ings, and in the world of po- ry things aren’t always nice,” id Averill, teacher of English )6, mythology and Writing 121 id 242 classes. “The obstacle see is trying to get people to rite from the whole spectrum.” Averill sat in front of a book- ise packed over five shelves gh in poetry volumes; her res shone with interest, verill defined Writing 242, creative writing and poetry, as being unstructured. She uses “suggested assignments” and said, “I never try to change the basic core of a poem or rewrite by rules. I just help them write their own idea.” Sometimes Averill will use objects or paint ings for the class to write about. Student Brittany Narvaez said, “Poetry classes are cool as long as they’re independent, not structured. Everybody needs to be able to develop their own style.” On Nov. 15, four of Averill’s long-time poetry students pre sented a 50-minute reading each at Wallace Books for the Living Poets Society. Averill has written for 25 years and two of her books have been published. “It feels good to have it out in the Nursing shortage poses risk to public health DANMERYS Staff Writer According to the National Student ursing Association, there is a tre- endous nursing shortage looming 1 the horizon. “By the year 2020, here will be 500,000 openings. Just evada has 1,000 openings unfilled ight now,” said Cathie Burton, na- ional secretary and treasurerfor the SNA. “This shortage puts patients risk.” With a constrained healthcare in- lustry that resists costs, there are nore patients with fewer nurses to ire for them, coupled with the fact that enrollment in nursing schools us been down for five years. In the ill of 1999 enrollment was down 4 6%. The average age of a registered nurse is now 46. ‘The only way to solve the nurs- g shortage is to promote nursing as a respected profession to attract the best and brightest,” Burton said. I The NSNA is a membership orga nization representing students in as sociate degree nursing programs, di ploma, baccalaureate, generic mas ters and generic doctoral programs preparing students for Registered Nurse licensure. It also represents Registered Nurses in Bachelor of cience nursing completion pro grams. The NSNA has 50 years of experi ence helping nursing students voice their interests and influence legisla tion. Some of the NSNA’s main goals are to provide opportunities for stu dents to learn and prepare for a fu ture career, broaden knowledge of the " The shortage puts patients at risk." Cathie Burton NSNA Secretary-Treasurer nursing profession, help students become involved in community health and education and the oppor tunity to communicate with national nursing leaders. The NSNA wants to enact legisla tion that will provide loan forgive ness options, grants and scholarships and increased funding to nursing schools to expand nursing programs, staff and faculty. “Many companies are offering sign-on bonuses to en tice prospective nurses to enter the profession, but this is only a short term fix.” Burton said. “Our community needs more nurses. Our department provides those trained nurses. The college needs to support die department,” said Burton, whose duties include notifying six states (Ne vada, Utah, Arizona, Maine, Vermont and Guam) of upcoming events. For rent 1,400 square foot, 2 bed, newly remodeled daylight basement $950 a month + utilities + a deposit Call 503-650-8026 Fax 503-626-0331 JUST 4.5 MILES FROM CCC! world,” she said. Her first book, “Branches Doubled over with Fruit,” was published by University of Florida, and the second, “Beautiful Obstacles,” was published by Blue Light Press of Iowa. One day, while stopped at a traffic signal, she was writing a poem on the back of her checkbook, almost roll ing into the car behind her. “You never know when it’s go ing to hit,” said Averill. “Ev ery time I sit down with a piece of paper, I feel like a beginner. You don’t know where the poem is going to take you. “We are taught in society to have to understand things in stantly, as in TV where the me dia want the viewer to have an immediate impact. So, some people don’t always have the patience to read a poem more than once. It is often neces sary to read and reread to get the poem’s full meaning.” Averill feels it is important to “take a class where you’re reading good contemporary as well as old-fashioned poetry.” She contrasts this to poetry in high school, where the focus is mainly on the older poets such as Shakespeare, so “oftentimes this is when people don’t see it as relating to their life.” Averill says that in con temporary poetry, the side of things that are not “too nice, or overly gushy” comes out. Averill is also one of the ma jor organizers of poetic events on and off campus. On Oct. 22, Averill organized a reading in the Gregory Forum by Diane Glancy. A nationally known author of more than 15 books of poetry, fiction, plays and non-fiction, Glancy has won over five awards and lives in St. Paul, Minnesota. More than 40 people attended, and Glancy gave out free books to all who came. On Feb. 26 another nationally known poet, Marvin Bell, de scribed as “dynamic,” with “poems that are really acces sible,” is scheduled to read at CCC. To get more information on this and other events, look for posters up around the cam pus, visit the Clackamas Liter ary Review’s Web site, or con tact Diane Averill at 657-6958 ext. 2370. For the poets around campus looking for readings and chances to share, Coffee Time, four or five blocks down 21st Street off Burnside in the northwest area of Portland, is always welcoming, with poetry readings beginning at around 9 p.m. every Tuesday night. poet's corner On September 12, I Can’t Stop looking at one business man falling head first from the tower. His arms and legs do not paw the air. He is not a kite with his tie as a tail. He is more a missile than man, his head the dome and trigger, his body a titanium shell, just as vivid, just as dumb. Now I know the clammy hold of images, why the eye flickered and bulged in the broken window of the college lockerroom years ago where I showered in a different man’s gaze. And it is the calm of this man compelling me stare over and over, the magnified shot of his face, his eyes watching the unrepentant street, the approach of a terrible body, its greeting a shattering. I can’t leave him. In his descent I finger a slick, clean fear and a grace so fierce it whistles lik^abomb. - Kate Gray, English instructor This poem is one of five finalists for the James Wright Poetry Prize and will be published in the upcoming Mid-American Review. APARTMENT YOU DON’T OWM? WAHT TO O WM YOUR OWM HOME? Call Shelby (503) 786-5377 EXAMPLE (on approved credit): $110,000 @ 6.0% 30 YR $659.51 per mo 70% of people that Q FHA AND HUD rent can afford to own APPROVED LEDF-R a home. 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