‘Telling Lies 9 Leads to Poetry

heart,’’ she explains. “Kids know lies. They don’t know ‘innovative,’ ‘creative’ or

COLD SPRING - "Creative writing is sometimes considered a waste of time — fooling around with language," observes Manya Bean. “But to me, it’s essential." Asa Poet in the Classroom from the New Jersey State Council for the Arts, Bean was invited to test her approach to poetry on the fifth and sixth graders of Lower Township Consolidated School. The results of her four-dav visit can be read in a forthcoming anthology' of the students’ efforts, or heard at 7:30 pjn. tomorrow when their works are read in the school auditorium. With all their competing interests and distractions, how does a Poet in the Classroom stimulate students to write

poetry?

“I TELL THEM to tell a lie,” Bean replies “That’s usually my first' assignment. You cant ask a person to sit down and write a poem; I usually don’t mention the word." “I ask them to tell a lie about their mother or their house or their eyes or News— Digestives Drugs Stoleii FISHING CREEK - Lower Township Police Lt. Charles Thofnton reported Monday that $2,220 in “top shelf" drags were stolen from the Rite Aid pharmacyin Breakwater Plaza over the weekend. Police are looking for a suspect Thornton described as a white male, 25-30, fivefeet, six-inches, 160 pounds, with wellkept wavy' brown hair, a mustache and wire-rim glass with clear lens. Those with information about the break-in are asked to contact township detectives at

886-2711.

‘inventive.’ " “Then I take those short ‘lies’ home aqd order them,” Bean notes, bringing the col laborative poem back to class the second day. By assigning the students “lies,” she triggers the imaginations they don’t use in telling the truth The assignments spawn the real frogs in the imaginary gardens that leap onto a page as poetic expression: One hand clapping is like a flag blowing in the breeze, a kite flying in the sky, my heart beating wildly, the sound of poetry. “THE SECOND DAY, I read more grown-up poetry,” Bean says, “and that doesn’t s thre^ten them. “So it becomes non-threatening and not a pain in the neck but more like a game. And that’s what I want it to be, a game — playing with language.

“It works well," Bean adds. “They think of themselves as poets." These samples, written by students in Deborah Le Gates' class, attest to their new-found skill: Lightning is an angry Palomino running in a meadow. (Tracey Noland, Cold

Spring);

Ponds are mirrors liquefied to reflect peoples' images. (Danny Price. Villas): A photograph is like a time machine taking people back into their own history! (Shelly Gall, Fishing Creek). Bean, of Port Republic, has taught creative writing to high school and college students but finds they have a more difficult time teasing their, imaginations into

poetry.

“THE MORE PEOPLE GROW, the less they want to play," she reasons. "Most creative work involves the element of play and they (older students) want to do grown-up things. /“I get upset with college students’ (Page 16 Please)

CREATIVE TOUCH — Manya Bean looks

over student creatioas at Lower Township's Consolidated School, which she visited as Poet in the Classroom.

Health Advises Physicians

Here’s the Beef

Stone Harbor Water Salty

COURT HOUSE - Two and a half American Bisons will be arriving at the Cape May County Park Zoo next week, thanks to an anonymous donor who footed the $1,500 bill to have the bull and pregnant cow shipped from upstate, Leon Fulginiti, executive director of county parks, announced Monday. The cow is due to deliver in July.

Hetty Crew Pays Up NEWARK - U.S. District Judge Frederick B. Lacey sentenced New Zealander Donald Dickenson, 31, captain of the Hetty, to 10 years in prison and three foreign crewmen to eight-year terms for trying to smuggle 15 tons of (Page 16 Please)

Salt? Cape May Mum CAPE MAY — City Councilman-Adrian S. Capehart, chairman of the city’s health board, said last week that he was unaware of statistics showing the city’s water is above the state's maximum contaminant level in sodium (salt). “That’s news to me," said Capehart. Cape May water serves the city, the Coast Guard base, West Cape May, Cape May Point and portions of Lower Township. The state maximum 'is 50 mg/1 (Page 18 Please)

SAMPLING — Jeanne Hansen, senior environmental planner for county Health Department, draws sample of water at* home of Deborah Hagan in Avalon. Sample w as delivered to Stockton State College to be tested for sodium content.

S. Cape Meadows Fund Hunt Pushed

COURT HOUSE - County and municipal officials plan to lobby the head of the state Department of Environmental Protection today for money to protect South Cape Meadows in Ixjwer Township from flooding. John Weingard, acting DEP director, is expected to outline DEP plans for spending $50 million in shore protection funds, approved as a ballot question in November, during a 1:30 p.m. meeting in the old court house heie. That meeting was postponed from Feb. 15. None of the $50 million has been earmarked for South Cape Meadows, a 180-acre coastal tract between Cape May and Cape May Front, the ocean and Sunset Boulevard. Storms routinely flood the tract and threaten to isolate Cape May point by cutting access along the Boulevard. „ County officials and those from Cape May Point, Cape May, Lower Township and West Cape May want some of the bond issue funds used to fortify the Meadows

coast to prevent flooding. According to County Freeholder William E. Sturm Jr., the local leaders will present a united front to convince Weingard of the need for Meadows protection. “WHAT I HAD SUGGESTED that they do,” El wood Jarmer, county planning director, said of his advice to local officials, “is, recommend to the state that it adopt the full (U.S. Army) Corps (of Engineers) plan for the area." Several years ago, the Corps developed a plan for protecting the coastline between Cape May (Cold Sprihg) Inlet and Cape May Point that called for jetties, dune fill and dune stabilization — including $7 million in work along the Meadows beachfront. The Crops, however, contends that possible property loss from storm flooding in that vicinity does not warrant expenditures on that scale. Still, an authorizing bill for the multimillion dollar Water Resources Act has (Page 18 Please)

Two Juvenile Panels Ready . COURT HOUSE — Two of -three intended Juvenile Conference Committees to deal with less serious incidents by firsttime offenders are up and nmning, according to Walt Craig, juverale intake coordinator with the Cape May County Probation Department. The committees help relieve the courts and also are thought to be “more effective in deterring future occurrence," Craig said. The Middle County Juvenile Conference Committee was scheduled to be sworn in last night by Superior Court Judge John F. Callinan. The committeee is made up of Diane Rhile, Ted Johnson, Loretta Dramis. Mr. (Page 16 Please) t

Report Set Next Week Bv JOE ZELNIK CREST HAVEN - The Cape May Coun ty Health Department will advise county physicians this week that drinking water in Stone Harbor exceeds the state's maximum contaminant Itvel in sodium <salt>. according to county Health Officer Louis J. Lamanna. The sodium content of water is not a problem for healthy persons, but can be for those with heart, kidney, or circulatory problems, ailments common to the elderly. It will be up to the physicians whether lo change their treatment of low-sodhim diet patients as a result. The state-recommended maximum is 50 mg/1 (milligrams per liter) and the recommended level for persons on low sodium diets is 20 mg/1. Stone Harbor's four wells tested on Feb. (Page 16 Please)

inside .

JOE ZELNIK is allegedly vacationing on a Mexican isle this week. See his account on page 34.