Poetry Comes to Flint Hill School

Five years ago the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation partnered with state arts agencies to support Poetry Out Loud, a high school contest that encourages the nation's youth to learn about great poetry through memorization and recitation.

High schools across America have students compete by reciting poetry and the winners from each school go on to regional, state and eventually the national championship. More than 325,000 students competed last year.

On Nov. 2, Flint Hill High School held its poetry competition as 14 students went up on stage to recite, entertain and delight the audience, composed of their fellow students, parents, teachers and the fifth-grade classes from Flint Hill's middle school.

"It's kind of stunning how much talent Flint Hill has for this kind of thing. I feel like no one here is afraid to get up and say something that someone else wrote and make it their own, which is really cool and rare," said student Keeley McLaughlin, who recited "The Powwow at the End of the World" by Sherman Alexie. "It's cool that people of all grades can stand up in front of the entire pool and honestly recite a poem that says something to them. I think that's really powerful."

Kyle DeCamp, a 10th-grader, recited "A Dream Within a Dream" by Edgar Allen Poe.

"I wanted to pick something that I could put energy into. Something exciting," DeCamp said. "I wanted to do something that was fun for me and fun for everyone else, too. I'm glad everyone tried so hard and did the best they could."

Keeley McLaughlin chose her poem based on the subject matter.

"I have a huge interest in Native American culture and recently I have been doing more research, getting more interested in it, and when I was looking at all the poems, this one really caught my interest," she said. "I found it really powerful so I went with it."

Joey Starnes, English department chairman for Flint Hill, introduced the poets and was very impressed with what she saw in the first round of poetry.

"Judging was based on accuracy, physical presence, vocal strategy and overall performance and the scores came out very close," she said. "The courage it takes to come up here, most people would never do. We are amazingly proud of these kids."

The top five finishers took to the stage again to compete with a second poem and the judging started again.

The winner of the contest was Connor Chess, who recited "Danse Rusee" by William Carlos Williams and Lord Byron's "No More a Roving," complete with an English accent.

"It feels pretty cool. I wasn't sure about doing the whole thing in the first place. I was a little timid, but I just got up there and I was comfortable and had fun with it," Chess said. "I was practicing last night and I felt to make it more fun I would do an accent and thought it would be a little different and more serious."

The runner-up was senior Ratna Gill, who recited "When I Have Fears that I May Cease to Be" by John Keats and "The Orange" by Wendy Cope.

"Everyone was spectacular. I thought everyone just chose poems that went with their personalities really well and that was really cool to see," Gill said. "It was cool to see people borrowing other people's words to say what they mean."