CampusNews
P!Jge 2
Monday, April 16, 2012
Poet recounts time with scientists in Antarctica BY LIS STEWART
staff writer Not only was Katharine Coles willing to write poems about science, she traveled to Antarctica to observe scientists in one of their most exotic habitats, Coles said. • Coles, a former Utah poet laureate, spoke on fostering understanding between science and art disciplines in an address to the Utah Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters at the academy's annual conference Friday, held at USU's Eccles Conference Center. "I am not a scientist -!.. I don't pretend to be a scientist," Coles said to the crowd of scientific and arts researchers, before she read poems written during an expedition to Antarctica with the National Science Foundation as a poet in residence. Coles said she drew from her experience traveling with scientists among research stations and observing the frozen world to write a book of poetry entitled Reckless. She often felt like an object of scientific observation during the journey, Coles said, and she described sitting next to an oceanogra- • pher on a bus through Chile on the way to their ship. "He was the first of many people who said, 'Oh, you're the poet,"' Coles said. Coles said she wrote a proposal to the National Science Foundation, asking it to send her to the world's least-inhabited continent.
Such a proposal is different for a poet than it is for a scientist, she said. "It's another matter entirely to pitch yourself as a poet or photographer or painter to a group mostly comprising of scientists - to persuade them they should send you down to Antarctica to hang out with the scientists there," Coles said. Her proposal to the NSF was not in poetic form, but Coles said she later wrote a poetic version in which she wrote symbolically about feeding animals out of the palm of her hand. Coles said in reality, treaties forbid feeding the animals in Antarctica. After her lecture, an audience member asked Coles, "What creatures did you feed?" "I fed no real creatures, but the creatures I was feeding in the proposal were the ones on the edge of the old maps where they say
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Hewas the first ofmany people who said, 'Oh, you're the poet."' -Katharine Coles, former Utah poet laureate
'There be monsters,'" Coles said. "You're not allowed to feed the creatures, and I was quite obedient to the treaty." When people heard about Coles' planned trip to Antarctica, she said she discovered there are two kinds of people in the world: "The kind of person that says, 'Oh, that's a wonderful thing. I'm jealous, I would love to go with her,' and the kind of person who says, 'Of course I support her, but is she out of her mind?'" Made possible by a grant from the NSF's Antarctic Artists and Writers Program, Coles sailed to Antarctica in 2010. To get there, the boat crossed the Drake Passage, which Coles said is a rough passage because it is where the Pacific and Atlantic oceans meet. . "This is the best thing ever," she read from her poem "Sailing to Antarctica," attributing her stomach of steel to spending summers riding in the back of her father's Jeep. Coles talked about the differences between poets and sdentists. A poet tries to find one word that could mean many things, and a scientist uses a word with the intent that it can mean only one thing, she said. However, her goal in Antarctica was also to describe what she saw for the rest of the world, even if she had to be careful in what she said to comply with international rules and treaties,
•) See POET, Page 3
FORMER UTAH POET LAUREATE KATHARINE COLES speaks to researchers at the Utah Academy of Sciences.Arts and Letters annual conference Friday. Coles read poems and anecdotes from her trip to Antarctica that are meant to illustrate bridging the gap between art and science. Coles recieved the John and Olga Gardner Prize at the event. KELSIE MASON photo
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ORP offers summer programs
OUTDOOR ENTHUSIASTS ADJUST KAYAKS on the grass at First Darn in Logan Canyon during the Outdoor Recreation Program's Demo Day on the Water. The ORP provides rental equipment such as kayaks, life jackets and paddles to students. Over the summer, the ORP will organize activities including hikes in Logan Canyon, whitewater trips to Jackson Hole, Wyo. and a Wilderness First Responder class in Moab. DELAYNE LOCKE photo
would like to try more than once this summer. "We did that last summer," Jones said. "It was really, really fun to take students out and to surf some waves in the rafts even dump some people into the water." Jones said during the daylong trips, students can rent gear from the ORP as well as split gas money to get there. In early May, students can participate in a Wilderness First Responder certification class in Moab, Utah, which Jones said is similar to a wilderness EMT but not as intense. The ORP will be sponsoring several hikes up Logan Canyon this summer, as well as "canoecaching," which Jones said is like geocaching but takes place in marshes with GPS devices, a partner and a canoe. "You· can actually get pretty lost in there," Jones said. Jones said accessibility to the outdoors is one of the biggest reasons students should participate in ORP events. "If ypu want to really explore the outdoors and have a fun time, and you don't know how to do it, come to the ORP and we'll teach you how," Jones said. Jones, Barratt and Gould said they agree that the rentals offer~d through the ORP as well as ORP 'Clinics should be taken advantage of by students.
"The ORP is subsidized by student fees," Jones said. "Because of that, we offer discounted rental rates. So if you want to rent a canoe, it's going to be cheaper for you, as a student, at the ORP thi21t'ftli4\liuf• Al's (Sporting Goods) or some other place." Barratt said gear is available for every skill level, and a variety of clinics are offered by the ORP that teach the basics of different outdoor activities and how to participate in them safely. "In my mind, there's those who love the outdoors and those that don't realize they love the outdoors yet," Barratt said. "We're just there to help everybody understand the biggest purpose of the outdoors, and that's to be safe and have fun." Gould said students new to a particular outdoor sport shouldn't be hesitant to come on ORP outings. "You don't have to be a great whitewater guide to come on our rafting trips in Jackson," he said. "You don't have to be a leave-no-trace master to come -0n backpack trips with us, or even day hikes. You don't have to ever have gone snowshoeing to go snowshoeing with us."
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