(Des Moines, IA, March 8, 2008) Two Des Moines high school students made it into the finals of the state Poetry Out Loud competition but it was Emily Mortvedt, a senior at Roland-Story High School in Story City, who came out the victor. She chose Love (III) by George Herbert, as her third and final poem.
Poetry Out Loud was started three years ago by the National Endowment for the Arts and is presented with the Poetry Foundation. It is a recitation contest for students in Grades 9 through 12. Iowa has participated for all three years and this year 43 inquiries were received from schools throughout the state. Fourteen students competed in the state finals. Other local winners were unable to attend due to a conflict with state speech championships. The winner receives $200 plus a paid trip to Washington, DC, for the national finals on April 28th. The winner’s school receives $500 with which to buy poetry books. The school of the student who took second place also received money for books.
Jim Coppoc, a lecturer at Iowa State University in composition and creative writing, was one of three judges. He said, “I’m in poetry because of this…the kind of poetry that can come out on a stage with a real audience.”
Poetry Out Loud provided a list of 500 poems from which students chose three poems to perform. The organization also provided teachers with material to help them present lessons on poetry. This year the rules required each contestant to recite a poem that was written before the 20th century in Round One and a poem that has no more than 25 lines in Round Two. Finalists recited a third poem without any restrictions.
Shaquita Welch of Northview Middle School in Ankeny was a crowd favorite because she is only a 9th grader. Her choice of poems and her poise in recitation earned her second place. Her third poem, “Still I Rise,” by Maya Angelou was delivered with the passion of a person who feels in her very spirit that the words speak truth.
Department of Cultural Affairs Director Cyndi Pederson said she was “very, very impressed” by the students. “They learn so many skills through the one art” of reciting poetry.
The competitors are active in several other school activities. Most of them are involved in some combination of band, choir, writing and/or theater, as well as service and academic organizations.
Iowa’s Poetry Out Loud contest was coordinated by Donna Davilla, who is a fine arts consultant and offers education workshops to teachers. She said, “I think it just really makes poetry came alive….”
Participants were judged in six areas. These included, physical presence, articulation, accuracy, level of difficulty, presentation of poem, and overall performance. Some of the students had one style for all poems. Some of the students did not speak as though they were comfortable with the poems they selected. Some of the students incorporated their own personalities into the poems. Every so often a student would just have fun with a poem.
North High School senior Saulaman Schlegel took third place. He chose Lewis Caroll’s “Jabberwocky” as his first poem and B.H. Fairchild’s 2003 “Early Occult Memory Systems of the Lower Midwest” for the final round. Both poems have challenging language.
Michael Carey, a farmer and a poet, and Spencer Gilbert also served as jurors for the competition. Gilbert won the 2007 Iowa Poetry Out Loud contest when he was a 12th grader at West Des Moines’ Valley High School. Now he is a student at the University of Iowa.
M.R. Field is editor of Leading Voices: Iowa. 
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