European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - December 25, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                By Nancy Shulins associated press aspiring teen age poet Amy Martin at Stuyvesant High school in new York City gifted it urgent Amy Martin paint her self portrait. Making metaphors in Manhattan he Manhattan apartment where Amy Martin grew up is a Garden its carpeting her Wall to Wall playground her father thet l Playan tallest  she considers a Boyfriend s lies As sugarcoated razor Blades " numbness is a Novocal suit that is always a sire too Small no matter How much i shrink to lit " Amy Martin thinks in metaphors. She has As Long As she can remember ii Hiir meaning in t always Clear to her. She has plenty of tune to sort them out she s after All. Only 17. She s a Good kid a gifted kid and according to Market research on the class of 86. Known to advertisers largely As puppies pre Urban professionals with acquisitive lifestyles and Bottom line ambitions not at All a typical kid. She is highly ambitious but not in the Way of the world she has chosen a less travelled Road than the clogged highways that Lead to Law schools or Mas what makes her prefer James Joyce to fashion magazines classical music to new wave making metaphors to making Money Why. With a novel in Progress and plans Lor a theater production next Spring does she spend her precious spare time Reading the classics running a poetry club and studying piano what Muse beckons a teen age girl out of bed in the Middle of the night to scribble verse in a dog eared Blue notebook9 Why does a Bright Young woman choose to worry not about being Hen. But about starving when your Talent lies in something As unstable As Art. People Beal it into you from Day one you Are going to  regardless she says she s going to be a poet her teacher says she already is one an impractical goal to be sure but perhaps it is also True As someone once said that politicians Don t change the world. Poets do. Amy Martin the Only child of two teachers is a senior of Stuyvesant High school one of three Public High schools for new York s academically fitted kids. The others Are Brooklyn technical High school and Bronx. High school of science to get accepted students must score a certain percentage on an aptitude test Given to eighth graders this year s enrolment at the schools is 9,900. 4 percent of the City s High school students. Between classes Amy wedges herself into vestibules at school an aging fortress on the Edge of a Tough neighbourhood to write never less than a Page in one of her ubiquitous notebooks the two dark Blue ones one her journal the other filled with poetry the Light Blue one for Short stories and essays the beige one. For analysis and criticism and the Tan one for her novel. It s weird that i m a  she says. I m not twins. I m quadruplets. There s my diary that s just Rne. There s my poetry which is me at the hardest times. My prose is an exercise. And my novel that s to give me a  she is five feet tall and pretty with shoulder length Blond hair tinted Strawberry by a recent Experiment with a bottle of Developer Long Bangs that fall languidly Over Blue eyes rimmed with Black Mascara and a tiny nose with a tiny bump visible Only to her. She is compact Graceful but not athletic i m the girl who when they threw the Ball at me ducked. Or got hit by  however she does shoot a fair game of Pool in the bedroom she shares with her divorced Mother. Regina Martin s half is neat and orderly. Amy s is piled with stuffed animals books and notebooks and pictures of James Dean who epitomizes that great wild struggling  a perfect saturday i d Wake up late and watch cartoons. Then i d play Mozart on the piano and practice my acting. I d write awhile and Call Rny father. I d get All dressed up and go to dinner with a Friend then do something fun like go dancing. I d come Home Early put on my Satin Robe and sit and think for a Hall hour then i d write in my journal play the piano again and go to  last summer when a bout with Mono kept her indoors. Amy read Anna Karen via by ads toy the idiot by Dostoevsky Lolita by Nabokov. My russian  Giggle. Then. Portrait of the artist ayoung Man and dubliners by James Joyce. She thinks too Many kids Are too concerned with when Iha Ini t writing one of Amy Marlin favorite Pat times it Pool at a parlor in Pajo 14 the stars and stripes wednesday 0� -