Tuesday, December 8, 1992 Westminster College of Salt Lake City Volume XXXV Issue XII Westminster Poetry Series features Robert Pack and Katharine Coles by Ann Gambrino Forum staff writer The 1993 Westminster Poetry Series continued as two contemporary poets, Robert Pack and Katharine Coles,read to audiences in Nunemaker Place. Pack, a professor of English at College in Vermont, appeared on Nov. 19 as the second poetof the Series. His evening of readings centered around the themes of animals and landscape. He said, My concern is with the ecological crisis that I feel were in as a species. We need to change, or well ruin the planet in a very short time. Pack lives in the Vermont countryside near the Green Mountains, and his first poem was a humorous recollection of the return of the wild turkeys to that area over the last 10 years. The turkeys ate the fermented apples that had fallen frem Packs'' trees, and he was entertained by their drunken stupor as they played on the lawn. He said of them, To be divinely stupid is to be divinely blessed. Packs new book. Reflections on a Gene Pool , based on evolutionary themes, will be. released in the spring. He said, Im trying to understand how we got ourselves into what we have as a species. The nextreading, Forgetting to Forget, taken from his new book, was a poem written for the 1991-9- 2 Poet Laureate Mark Strand. .VfC fV 1KJ Mid-dlebu- ry x V - V K v & ' j 'if f k J - i Renowned poet, childrens writer and essayist Robert Pack. Westminster professor. Pack got the idea for his next poem, The Dwarf and Dr. Freud when reading Peter Gays biography of Sigmund Freud. Pack said, We need to not only be with other people, but we need to identify more with animals the physical world itself. The narrator of the poem itself is a dwarf who spoke while Freud was recovering from a surgery. Pack went on to read from his last book. Before It Vanishes , which is a sequel of poems associated with what hes come to learn of modem physics and the big bang theory. He wrote 12 poems after reading Heinz Pagels The Cosmic Code and decided to organize a book. He called Pagels, who was the director of the New York Academy of Sciences, and asked his permission to use him in the book. Each of Packs poems begins with a quote from Pagels, but Pagels then becomes an affective person in the poems. Pack told Pagels that he was his guide in each of the poems, but becomes a surrogate father, brother, son and friend on a tour with Scholarship Information Now in Library by Tamera Evans Forum staff writer An index listing current outside scholarships is now available for students in the campus library. Working to create a resource area in the library, financial aid officers are hoping to make scholarship information more accessible to Westminster students. Maureen K. Johnston, financial aid officer, coordinated the index with the help of work study employees Phil Takis and Mami Sutton. Their goal was to put the information where students could access it easily. We are trying to increase outside scholarship information, said Johnston. They organized the index list by topics, employee can pull the file. Each file contains information regarding the particular scholarship. Some outside scholarships offer substantial funding, but may require specific criteria. An example is the Orville Redenbacher scholarship for single women returning to school. Individual files contain the most current information that has been sent to the school. Some outside scholarships have an entry deadline so interested students should look over information carefully. Some, such as nursing, communications or scholarship files contain the applications, but others may require more time and investigation. Associate Librarian OrestaEsquibel was really receptive as far as making information accessible for students, said Johnston. Esquibel has aided Johnston in creating a system for students to access. A request for minorities. Any student who wants to see the index can request it at the front desk in the library. Once a students chooses a particular scholarship on the index, a library scholarships has been put in the libraries budget for next year. In the past, students interested in these periodicals have been annual periodicals listing outside referred to public libraries. A bulletin board in the library foyer is also being used to post current outside scholarship notices. We want to make it possible for students to apply for outside scholarships if they want to, said Johnston. Johnston hopes to someday get the scholarship information into a computer system and away from the manual method currently being used. As we financial aid office have grown, weve been able to do more things, said Johnston. Making outside scholarship information readily available at extended hours offers students financial resources beyond the competition of institutional scholarships. Students interested in the possible outside scholarships can contact the financial aid office or the library with questions. Institutional scholarship information packets will be mailed to Westminster students around the first of the year. If you dont receive your information, please contact the financial aid office. him throughout the universe. Pagels was delighted and replied, Thats good. I have a better chance of surviving as a fictive character than as a real one." Pack finally met Pagels at the Reality Club in New York, and their friendship began. Pack continued with his book and it was almost ready to go to print when Pagels died in a climbing accident in Colorado. Pack read the last poem in his book, Outlasting You, which is dedicated to Pagels. The evening took on a more humorous note when Pack introduced and read his poem loaded with puns called Bear on the Unicycle. He said, Only one thing I cant stand is when people miss my puns. Youd better groan in the right places. The audience did, and he was delighted. Pack concluded his performance by reading Mountain Ash Without Cedar Wax-wing- s, and a poem dedicated to his father Father in the Map. . called Dr. Katharine Coles is a native of Salt Lake City, teacher of English at Wcstmin- stcr and director of the Westminster Poetry Scries. She presented her first poetry book, The One Right Touch on Thursday, Dec. 3, at N unemaker Place. G. Barnes introduced her as Writer of the West and master of many: classics, roll and rhythm and blues, jazz, rock He tonk . is Her said, honky poetry tender and tough. There is a creative tension here that is absolutely and intentionally scary. She is savvy, as the work is savvy. She is disciplined, as the work shows. Coles lived up to Barnes descriptions as she read from her book and several new creations in which the audience experienced her psyche through her poetic progression. Continued on page 4 V