Trumping poetry

By Liz Wood

Brenda Ostendorf calls him the Jim Carrey of Hanna-Elk Mountain-Medicine Bow (HEM) High School.

“He does a great impersonation of Smeagol from Lord of the Rings,” Ostendorf said.

That talent has earned Dakota Trump a place in the Wyoming Art Council’s Poetry Out Loud competition.

Trump, a sophomore at HEM said he learned about Poetry Out Loud from Ostendorf, his English teacher.

Ostendorf played a video of students who had competed in years past and asked if any of her students were interested.

Fifteen students showed an interest.

Poetry Out Loud requires a lot of practice and memorization, Ostendorf said, and the 15 students eventually were reduced to three. Trump, and two alternates - Maggie Johnson and Aspen Moon.

The students were judged by Jennifer Crandall, the student counselor; Janet Conover, assistant to the head secretary at HEM and Elyse Collins, a staff member who retired after working at HEM for 20 years.

HEM librarian, Kathy Thompson, judged on the accuracy of the poem. She followed the script and mark errors on each poem.

The judges said Trump, without a doubt, was their No. 1 pick and described his performance as magical according to Ostendorf.

Trump picked the poem “The Tiger” by William Blake.

“It grabbed my attention,” Trump said.

He practiced with his friends. They would read the script while he worked on his memorization.

Trump will compete in Cheyenne March 3 and 4 against students from 11 other schools.

Poetry Out Loud is sponsored by the National Endowment of the Arts and the Poetry Foundation and was developed to encourage the nation’s youth to learn about great poetry.

The program is for high school students grades 9 through 12 at public and private schools. For more information go to the Wyoming Arts Council webiste http://wyoarts.state.wy.us/events/poetry-out-loud/.