The San Francisco Examiner from San Francisco, California • 47

When July 12, 1982 S.F. EXAMINER E3 appear to be gifted in any way," sayi Big Eagle, who spent part of last year teaching at Ilintil Kuu Ca American Indian Children's Center in Oakland. "Suddenly, they'll hit some talent they didn't know they had." There may also be psychological benefits. "Each kid has a raw place, an un-worked-out place," Marron says. They work it out through Toby Kaplan, who has worked in the East Bay Poets in the Schools poetry goes to school 111 Vv vj? A 3 aT4 5 'a 1 fc.

iit By Mickey Friedman Examiner book editor Jazzman 1 Blowin'onyow Longtime pal The saxophone Playin' (he tune Of pain and hurt Jazzman Blowin' time away Lookin'fora way out Through the sound of old rag time Music jazzman Made out of clay Just blowin' his tears away Letha Jones Some of the poets of Galileo High School: from left, standing Cindy Poon, teacher Judy Bebelaar, Willie Chan, Christina Lee, Beth Wise, Lorrie Thomas, Lisa Lee, Debbie Kwong, John Marron, of Poets in the Schools; seated Pamela Ivory, Rachel Woolley, Scarlett Porterfield, Eric Nesbitt, Daniel De Tablan at Tti i 'v i t. 'T, 'v x- DRAWING OF a skele- fii ton Holding a saxophone I illustrates Letha Jones' XrJ poem, the picture and program, agrees: "I feel the strength of poetry of making pictures with wordi Poetry can be very powerful in that way. Students discover images that are relevant to their lives. They discover the quality of their experience by writing about it and describing it" How does a poet get a roomful of possibly dubious kids to begin writing? There are all sorts of tricks, Bebelaar says: "Sometimes, a poet might read his or her own work, and start from there. I might show a film, or do a free association to a significant word like ocean, midnight or death.

We will fill the board with associations, then I'll say we were going to write for a while." Marron tries relaxation and guided fantasy exercises with students as a way of beginning poems: "I have them allow themselves to relax and visualize and allow the unconscious to make movies create scenes." Everyone who works for Poets in the Schools is a poet The intense experience of working with students almost invariably has an effect on their own writing. "It feeds my work," says Toby Kaplan. The process of sharing gives me new ways to approach it" "It's great for my own poetry to teach at Galileo," Marron says. "I hear Chinese and Spanish and Tagalog, and I hear people singing and riffing on songs. The sound level is enormous, and the energy level is the same." Does writing poetry have a lasting effect on students? The impact varies with the individual, but certainly some have had their lives changed by the program Thorn Lee is 19 now.

He was turned on to poetry at Galileo and has had work published, has given readings and last year returned to Galileo as a visiting poet "The students just love him," Bebelaar says. (Galileo poetry broadsides are available from Emporium-Capwell, or from John Marron at 2864 Folsom San Francisco 94110. For more information about Poets in the Schools, call Willredo Caslano words reinforcing a tersweet message about world view," says Marron. "The kids suffer. We had a year and a half of momentum going.

And the kids really improved as writers." The fact that the poets seem able to interest students in writing is the major point in its favor, according to Duane Big Eagle, the state affirmative action coordinator for the program "It feeds into basic skills, and that's why most schools are interested in us. If a student wasn't interested in grammar before, they will come to me and ask if a comma is in the right place. They really want their work to be right We bring in energy and excitement because we're somebody new, and that makes it easier for the teacher." "If a kid has problems with language skills, this gets him interested and gets him writing," Newman says. "Kids who don't have self-confidence gain it And if they were creative to begin with, they really are productive." "Some of my most rewarding work has been with students who didn't that carries with it the job of project director for California Poets in the Schools. (The Poets in the Schools program is affiliated with the Poetry Center.

It is funded by the California Arts Council and private foundations.) Many areas in the state are in better shape than San Francisco in terms of funds for poetry, Gershenson says: The state is broken into areas under the jurisdiction of area coordinators. Each coordinator is given a certain amount of money we put in $1 for every $3 the school puts in. The San Francisco school district, as everyone knows, is hurting. It's a very poor district, and there just isnt enough money." Gail Newman, San Francisco coordinator for the program, is optimistic, however "We got a large grant from the San Francisco Foundation for affirmative action, and it provides that we can offer workshops for a match instead of one to three. The problem with San Francisco is that there are cutbacks in the district, but there are many ways and sources of funding.

If a school wants us, we help them find the funds. That's part of my Job. I see the program as in limbo right now, but I think it will expand." Thirteen local poets worked in San Francisco last year either as trainees, giving extended workshops in the classrooms or as guest poets. The program provides that the poet will put together an anthology of student work. Each student is given a copy, and extras are offered for sale.

Anyone who intimates that poetry is a frill where the schools are concerned will find a vigorous argument from the Poets in the Schools people. "It's the best way to get kids to read and write and care about words," says Bebelaar. "In teaching poetry, we're teaching values, ethics, how to live your life." She is distressed that Galileo will not be participating in Poets in the Schools next yean "I'll still be there, but it won't be the same." "Poetry is seen as froth, instead of a year's project In tine age of punk rock and video games, there are still kids who write poetry? There are. Not only at Galileo, but in schools from kindergarten through twelfth grade all over California as part of the California Poets in the Schools program. This program, which brings poets to the classroom to teach children to read, write and appreciate poetry, has been operating, since 1964.

Unfortunately, because of tight funding, Galileo will not have a poet next year, and budget crises have made for some rocky times for the program in the San Francisco schools. "In a city that has more poets than anywhere else except New York, it's really a shame," says John Marron, who has worked at Galileo for the past year and a half. "San Francisco is always trouble," says Bernard Gershenson, who is just finishing a three-year term as assistant director of the Poetry Center at San Francisco State University, a position the transience of joy. The lesson is one gained through maturity, so it comes as a surprise that both the author and the artist, Ben Chan, are students at Galileo High. Their collaboration, and 11 other posters or "broadsides," as poems printed singly are called have been produced by Galileo's creative writing class.

The Galileo broadsides run the gamut from a meditation on the color yellow by Judy Lee is everywhere: creamy buttercupstawny sunflower gold citronic rose "I to a highly political anti-nuclear poem by Gary Horn you rememberHiroshima Nagasaki The student poets in the Galileo creative writing class taught by Judy Bebelaar, a poet herself, worked with their fellow-student artists, taught by Louie Nuyens, to put the works together. They selected which poems should be highlighted and now they are selling them, both singly ($1) and as a set ($10) to raise money for next Book scene Mickey Friedman will offer it to whomsover he can extract the maximum advance royalty." In the meantime, Price is "chopping down jungle" that grew around his house while he was writing so furiously. He is, he says, "still drinking myself to death, although I've cut down on my brandy ration enormously." He has two thoughts on writing to pass along: "Dissolute and immoral women are a great subject for fiction if you treat them with respect and affection. It's time they were treated amiably." Also, "This is not the happy, carefree business people think it is." But you'd never know that from talking with E. Hoffmann Price.

The winners of this year's Joseph Henry Jackson and James D. Phelan awards have been announced, and the $2,000 prizes will be presented at a luncheon this week. The Jackson winner is Lucille Lang Day of Oakland, for a collection of poems, "Self-Portrait with Hand Microscope." Day is a technical writer with Schlage Electronics in Santa Clara. Melissa Brown-Pritchard, a native of San Mateo who now lives in Evanston, 111., took the Phelan award for a story collection, Twelve Stories." She is a writer and actress. The awards are given for unpublished works in fiction, nonfiction, poetry or drama.

publication by Ballantine Books of The Jade Enchantress," his second Tang Dynasty fantasy, and found him "keeping rather busy, as you may suspect" and as charming as ever. Between "The Devil Wives of Li Fong" and The Jade Enchantress" Price published a "space opera," as he calls it titled "Operation Misfit" A sequel to that book, "Operation Long Life," is forthcoming from Ballantine and, he says, "I've spent most of the gate receipts" from it His current project is a whodunit which is "showing me just about the standard tough time." Price was a bit apologetic about the slowness of his pace: Three books in three years is by no means the clip at which I used to write for the pulp magazines. I would've done two books a year then. But to make up for my slow production, I'm doing a better job of writing." Many writers who arent 8i of course, would think Price's production schedule is nothing short of miraculous. Price felt it necessary, though: "When I sold 'Devil Wives' I wondered if it was a fluke.

I had to write more to see if I was still in business." Having proved that he is, "I am plain damn well comfortably tired." Price's writing career has always been an on-and-off affair, and it began as the result of an on-and-off affair with a woman named Jackie, who wrote "love pulps" and suggested that Price try them Jackie eventually went back to her husband, Price told me in 1980, but her legacy was Price's taste for writing. During the heyday of the pulps (the most famous is probably Black Mask, where Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett got started), Price wrote everything: Love stories, Westerns, adventures, detective stories, science fiction and fantasy. He did take two long hiatuses from writing. He worked for Union Carbide for many years before becoming a full-time pulp writer. Then, after the pulps folded, he spent 15 years as a microfilm technician and sometime astrologer.

A long-time Sinophile, Price immersed himself in research for his Chinese books, reading histories and early Chinese novels. "The Jade Enchantress" is the story of a Jade Lady, a Buddhist nun granted immortality for good works, who falls in love with a mortal An advantage of writing about ancient China, he says, is, "There were so few surnames, so you can avoid libel suits. Nobody can sue me for embarrassment for using his name." And if he occasionally slips out of Tang Dynasty into a later period. Price doesn't worry about it too much: Thank God for an ignorant readership." At the moment, Price is involved with his crime story: "I may write 10 pages one day, Still going strong Ed Price, known to his readers as E. Hoffmann Price, spent his 84th birthday July 3 drinking Demerara rum and celebrating the publication of his third book in three years.

To anyone even slightly acquainted with Price, these activities will come as no shock. 1 first met Price a couple of years ago over dim sum in his beloved Chinatown. The occasion was the publication of The Devil Wives of Li Fong," a fantasy set in ancient China and Price's first published writing since the pulp magazines folded for good in the early '50s. On that occasion he plied me with food and alcoholic beverages, regaled me with stories of his checkered career, used a dirty expression I didn't understand (w hich I subsequently quoted in my story), and generally revealed himself to be an irresistible rascal. I called him at his home in Redwood City the other day to congratulate him on the E.

Hoffmann Price another fantasy then nothing for three or four days in succession. I got to page 137 and decided it was a lot of interesting stuff that went nowhere. I had a lot of snappy dialogue, but it didn't hang together. I'm now revising and getting the story moving." When he finishes, "My agent IneTotalArf Ann Landers the downstairs neighbors used to bang on the pipes with a monkey wrench. Our 8-year-old son started to play piano by ear and asked if he could take lessons.

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