HEM poets recite way to top three

Three Hanna-Elk-Mountain-Medicine Bow Middle/High School student poets achieved top placements at their school's Poetry Out Loud Competition last month.

Junior Dakota Trump received first place, sophomore Maggie Johnson placed second and senior Aleck Freeman place third at the competition, which took place at HEM Middle/High School Jan. 24. According to its website, Poetry Out Loud is a national arts education program that encourages the study of great poetry, by offering a dynamic memorization and recitation competition to high schools across the country.

Trump recited all of "Ode on Solitude" by Alexander Pope for the competition's three judges, after selecting the first-place-winning poem from the Poetry Out Loud website.

"I was going through the Poetry Out Loud selection of poems, and this one came across as interesting," Trump said. "I recited it to Mrs. Ostendorf, and she said I read it really well and it flowed naturally. She said it was a good choice for me to use. I had a few selected out and decided to do that one."

Trump, now in his second year of doing school poetry, said he plans to use the same poem for the statewide Poetry Out Loud finals competition, which he hopes to attend March 10-11 in Cheyenne. According to Poetry Out Loud, the school competition winners go onto the state competition, and ultimately, the state winner advances to the National Finals in Washington D.C., scheduled for April 29-30.

"You use three poems in the state competition, and that will be one of them," Trump said. "You have to get first to go to nationals, and if the winner of state can't make it, they ask the runner-up."

For her second-place winning piece, Johnson recited "Let it be Forgotten" by Sarah Teasdale, which was also taken from the Poetry Out Loud website.

"You have to pick one off the poetry out loud site, and when you're going through them, you try to find one that calls out to you," Johnson said. "Mine was just easy enough and had good meaning to it. I think everyone in Mrs. Ostendorf's classes competed in it, and they at least had to memorize part of a poem."

Aleck Freeman, also a member of the Saratoga Speech and Debate Team led, recited part of "A Dream Within a Dream" by Edgar Allan Poe for his performance.

"Mine had two stanzas, but I only memorized one of them," Freeman said. "Mine is actually incorporated into my speech piece for the NFL (National Forensics League), so I had a bit of a plus there. I already had that as part of my speech, so I was already pretty familiar with it."

Johnson said this was the second year HEM held the Poetry Out Loud contest, and with her love of poetry, she was more than happy to participate.

"I've always kind of had a thing for poetry, so anything to do with poetry kind of calls out to me," he said. "I grew up with it too because my grandma is a published poet. In the eastern area she's well-known. She has over 10 books, and she does a lot of Armenian translating."

Freeman said he had also grown up surrounded by poetry, and enjoys being able to perform with it.

"I do enjoy it and have grown up in it, so it's natural to be around it," he said. "I've also had teachers who decided to incorporate poetry into their curriculum.