MAY 1», 1978 PAGE 3
—— — Student Poet Selected For Seminar — ------- -
ELIZABETH WOODY
GRANDFATHER (GHOST)
YOUNG INDIAN WOMAN LISTENING
For M adras High School
senior Liz Woody, going back to
school this sum m er w ill be an
honor and not a chore. Liz will
be one of twelve students attend
ing a five-day workshop at
Lewis and Clark College in late
June — an opportunity provided
by the Oregon Arts Foundation.
The sem in ar, which will
give students a chance to work
with two published wrjters, was
the prize offered in a statewide
crea tiv e w riting com petition
held last month for all high
school students in Oregon.
Liz submitted three poems
at the la st m inute and was
genuinely surprised to receive
word of her selection a few
weeks later. Believing that com
petition shouldn’t be part of
writing, the talented young writ
er entered because of the unique
opportunity to work with pro
fessionals of such caliber.
T eaching the sem in ar will
be n ovelist and poet Jam es
Welch, a Blackfoot-Gros Ventre
Indian best known for his novel
Winter in the Blood; and poet
Sandra McPherson who has ap
peared in several leading maga
zines and journals as well as her
own books. Both are experienced
teachers with whom students
w ill be a b le to sh are their own
work and explore directions in
contemporary literature.
Liz is taking with her to the
workshop a sen sitiv ity to her
cultural background that has
found exp ression through the
years in story-telling, drawing
and more recently poetry.
In two of the three works
entered in the compétition, Liz
addresses herself to her Indian
background. “ Still I Can R e
member the Brown Stone Color
of My Skin” describes the poet’s
re-awakening to the fact and the
beauty of being an Indian.
“Grandfather (Ghost)’’, which
is printed here, was inspired by
L iz’s own grandfather Louie
P itt, Sr., but also contains her
observations of two younger
men.
Liz’s family looms large in
her future — “I plan to live with
my fam ily a lot off and on and
help them out," she said of her
post-graduation plans. But she
has m any other id eas about
what lies ahead. Law is a field
she would like to pursue, per
haps at the paralegal level. And
art school is a very rea l p ossi
bility for the multi-talented stu
dent who won first prize at the
1976 Oregon State F air for a
black and white photograph.
Acknowledging the difficulty
of living off her poetic abilities,
Liz said she nevertheless would
feel sh e w as “ ch ea tin g ” if she
didn’t continue to w rite and
share her poetry with people.
Besides, she noted, you “don’t
plan on being a poet — it.just
happens.”
The ability Liz has discover
ed and cultivated with the sup
port of her English teacher Mr.
Carlson and the feedback of her
m other and friend s, should
prove to be handy no m atter
what she chooses to do.
“My writing’s always going
to help m e,” she predicted. “I’ll
be writing all the tim e.”
Plus there is the notion that
“generally a poet or writer can
talk people into th in g s.” Liz
admitted to having the knack.
And yet Liz didn’t need to
talk her way into the sum m er
sem inar with its free tuition,
room and board. She sim ply
wrote from her heart and wrote
well.
Silent, tall man walking among the melting people -
Watching the longness' of your attractive walk,
Your feet beat softly, and the hairs of your head rub sweetly.
Gazing admiration of which you can not see . . .
Your transparency allows me to think of you clearly -
Your words are mellowed through your throat,
Your lips create a slight drawl.
When you speak . . . I strain my body to reach them . . . your words . .
Your power seeps into mine and we feel strong.
Reach you I try . .-. Too young am I.
A man with children,
A woman with many births around her.
A man with strength . . . there are hardly any left.
The scarcity of my fellow man-people shivers my soul.
Your human softness leaves behind the boiling body of human kind.
This thunders in my ears, and softly travels to my heart.
ELIZABETH WOODY
Madras High News . .
Students Benefit
From OTIS
Madras High School “struck
it rich” when they acquired an
Oregon Total Information Sys
tem, better known as “OTIS” , at
the beginning of the school year.
OTIS, is a term in al worth
$40,000 which is used for both
student purposes and adm ini
strative purposes alike. The ter
minal is hooked up to the main
com puter, which is located in
Eugene, by telephone line. The
term inal can ca ll upon the
computer at any time.
The administration used the
com puter for keeping attend
ance records and scheduling
classes. Attendance records can
be stored in the computer to be
pulled out at any tim e if a
problem arises. The computer
also works out the scheduling a
year ahead. If one class appears
to be overloaded, the computer
will even it out.
Students b enefit from this
computer as well. Math teacher,
Jack Gallagher uses it in math -
teaching Computer Program
ming. They work out problems
on the com puter and check to
see if they are correct.
But learning computer pro
gramming can’t be all that hard,
especially if the computer can
teach the student just that. The
computer has a tutor program
and can do anything from teach
ing a child the alphabet to
teaching a student how to write
poetry or stories. Students can
also play educational gam es on
the computer. “Not gam es in a
sen se that you play at h om e,”
commented Gus Roberts,Librar
ian at Madras High School. The
gam es are one you learn by,
su ch -a s, g a m es-d ea lin g with
Chemistry, etc.
OTIS also has a Career
Information System. This sys
tem has every known occupation
in Oregon, and in a m atter of
minutes, a student can find out
working conditions, salary, job
outlook fringe benefits, and even
where that job might be located.
Or if the student isn ’t c e r
tain what career he is going to
pursue he g o es through the
“Quest Program.” The student
an sw ers 24 questions and the
computer will tell what kind of
job is suitable for him.
After entertaining students at the Petersburg School, Warm Springs kids visited classrooms and
answered questions. Group leader and community liaison Delson Suppah told one class about the
traditional language of the Warm Springs visitors.
CDS Photo
Children at the rural Petersburg School outside of The Dalles enjoyed watching Warm Springs
kids do such traditional dances as the Butterfly Dance (above), Skip Dance, Owl Dance, and War
Dance. Then joinedtheir visitors in a snaking Circle Dance. The cultural exchange trip was one of
severai made by* local students this year, , , .
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