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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.
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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.
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