Monday, December 4, 1967
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
3
Select poetry class offered
In the spring when a young man's fancy turns to poetry the English department will offer a course in the writing of poetry.
The course, taught by John Meixner, professor of English, and visiting poets William Stafford and Ed Dorn, will have an enrollment limited to 12 students chosen by Meixner.
Meixner said those interested in taking the course should submit a sample of their work—five to ten poems—to the English department before Dec. 20.
"Five to ten poems is specified because almost anyone can write one poem," Meixner said.
Imagination and talent are the two main things Meixner will be seeking when judging the poetry and selecting the students.
He will also be looking for a technical capacity and an ability to command the language.
"Poetry today is so various, the best thing one can do is to be open," Meixner said.
A "collection of individualists" is what Meixner wants for his course.
"I would like to have a variety of people in the course," Meixner said.
Teaching a course on the writing of poetry will not be easy even if there are only 12 students.
"Art is very had to teach," Meixner said. "It is a matter of person to person."
Meixner's aim is "to provide an atmosphere of creativity for those in the course."
"I don't think the university atmosphere is conducive to creative work," he said.
Meixner feels if he has a group of "lively imaginative people" that, in itself, will create the desired atmosphere.
One of the pleasures Meixner has had in teaching this type of course is a sense of discovery. He never knows what is going to happen next because the class depends entirely on the students.
The class, as its title suggests, will be concerned with writing poetry rather than studying it.
"Every once in awhile we will have to have the infusion of some first class poetry, Meixner said. "It raises the level of the students' poetry."
Meixner has no "lesson plans" for the course, nor has he planned any formal study. Teaching a course such as this is "very much of feeling one's way," he said.
Greece, Turkey reach settlement
ATHENS — (UPI)— Presidential envoy Cyrus R. Vance left here for home today confident that a war has been averted between Greece and Turkey over the Mediterranean island nation of Cyprus.
Greece and Turkey announced Sunday they had accepted U.N. Secretary General U Thant's call for the withdrawal of their troops from Cyprus. The island nation itself was expected today to accept Thant's appeal.
President Johnson dispatched Vance to Athens, Ankara and Nicosia to help seek a peaceful way out of the crisis that arose in mid-November when the Greek Cypriot National Guard battled with and killed nearly 30 Turkish
France marks 75th birthday
MADRID — (UPI)— Seventy-five years ago today Francisco Franco Behamonde was born the son of a modest navy paymaster in the Galician seaport of El Ferrol.
Today, Generalissimo Francisco Franco. "Caudillo of Spain by the grace of God," quietly marked the occasion secluded with his family and a few intimates in the 16th century Pardo Palace from which he has ruled Spain for the past 30 years.
Cypriots.
Vance for two weeks flitted from capital to capital negotiating the agreement that ended the threat of war between NATO allies Greece and Turkey.
Thant has offered his help in enlarging the U.N. peacekeeping force stationed on Cyprus to oversee disarmament and internal security. The final decision rests with the Security Council.
WASHINGTON — (UPI)—Rep. Bob Dole, R-Kan., a ranking member of the House Agriculture Committee, today charged the Johnson Administration with blocking several efforts to boost farm income.
Farms neglected by great Society, Rep. Dole says
"The American farmer has been outcase of the Great Society." Dole said. "The Johnson Administration has emphasized urban problems and programs while the plight of the rural American has steadily worsened."
Farm prices are lower than they were 20 years ago although the cost of what the farmer buys has skyrocketed 35 per cent, he said. Net farm income, he said, is at a per capita average of $1,731—60 per cent below the average urban income.
Sees bats, salamanders
More than 400 species of trees, not to mention 75 species of bats, inhabit a one and a half square mile strip of the Brazilian rain forest.
Prof studies in Belem
Philip S. Humphrey, director of the KU Natural History Museum, uses this example to illustrate the complexity of the tropical rain forest study in which he's participating.
Humphrey went to Belem, Brazil from Nov. 9-20 to work in the rain forest program. The study is sponsored by the Ministry of Agriculture of Brazil, the
Remember when you made your first snowball?
Shecia Ranade, Poona, India, graduate student, can-it was Saturday afternoon.
Saturday's light snowfall was the second she had ever seen. She first saw snow in New York City last spring, but said it was light and melted before she had a chance to go outside and touch it.
Snowfall produces snowballs
Miss Ranade couldn't understand why most people say they don't like snow.
"I went crazy when I saw it this morning," she said. "It was white all over and so beautiful, especially the snow on the trees."
Abdellay Ben Omran, Derna,
Libya, graduate student, found
the snow rather inconvenient. He
complained of having trouble
starting his car.
Smithsonian Institution and the Beem Virus Laboratory in Beem.
His brother, Abdelmonein, also a graduate student, saw snow on mountains peaks in Colorado during Thanksgiving vacation, but had never seen it fall.
He said the closest thing to snow in Libya is sleet or hail. He said he was "very interested in it," but preferred to remain in his warm apartment.
Etmudm Ohiomoba, Lagos, Nigeria, freshman, had never seen snow before. In Nigeria, he said, the winter season brings only cold weather.
He too made his first snowball Saturday.
On his last trip Humphrey checked into the opportunities for faculty and graduates of KU to do research at Beem and for Brazilian graduates to do graduate study here.
Humphrey also did some research on a rare Amazon salamander.
Matinee 1:00 & 3:05
Evening 7:15 & 9:30
Wed., Dec. 6 ONE DAY 4 Shows Only
Advance Tickets Now On Sale At The Box Office
PETER BROOK'S MOTION PICTURE
THE PERCESSION AND
ASSINITATION OF
JEAN-PAUL
AS PERFORMED BY THE INMATER
OF THE AYLIM OF CHARENTAIN
UNDER THE LEONARD WALKER
THE MARQUIS DE SADE
Humphrey explained the study program began in 1965 when he was a full-time staff member of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.
PETER BROOK S. MOTION PICTURE
The Ministry of Agriculture of Brazil set aside a large patch of rain forest as an ecological research reserve in January 1966.
PETER WEISS
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Suggestion for Future Advances
The forest is in the lower Amazon a little more than one degree south of the equator.
Varsity
THLATRE ... Telephone V13-1065
The study is now comprised of six programs: soils, meteorology, botany, entomology, vertebrate zoology and epidemiology study of the ecology of diseases.
Humphrey said the purpose of the study was to find out more about the poorly understood rain forest environment. The scientists relate these findings to regional agricultural development problems. They hope to find ways and means to improve local facilities for training Brazilians in handling these kinds of problems.
The program is administered and directed by Brazilians, Humphrey said.
Humphrey, who began work as director of the Natural History Museum and as chairman of the zoology department here in August of this year, is still on the Smithsonian staff as their representative in the Amazon rain forest study.
"Research is a hobby for me now," he said, explaining that administrative work at KU and in the Belem program takes up most of his time.
Humphrey said some of the projects in the rain forest have been studying the relationships among birds and army ants, among arthropod-borne viruses, various species of mosquitos and birds.
Explaining his study of Amazon salamanders, he said, "A lot of people in the program specializing in entomology have been informed I'm working on these salamanders. They collect them for me and record data such as where and when the salamanders were found and special notes about their habits."
Previously this salamander was known through only 12 to 15 specimens. Humphrey's colleagues have collected about 150 of them in this one patch of forest.
He said he is studying their distribution in the forest, their feeding habits and seasonal variations in their abundance and habitat.
Humphrey said he hopes the Amazon forest study will arouse interest in the faculty and students at KU. He plans to go to Belem again early next year.
Humphrey, a specialist in ornithology and vertebrate zoology, was chairman of the department of vertebrate zoology at the Smithsonian. He was the Smithsonian's curator of ornithology from 1932-1965.
"The Peace Corps in the 3rd World"
Panel Discussion by former Peace Corps Members & Foreign Students
SUA CURRENT EVENTS FORUM
TUESDAY, DEC. 5
3:30
FORUM ROOM