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Poetry Out Loud is a contest
that encourages the nation's youth
to learn about great poetry.
This program helps students master public speaking skills,
build self-confidence, and learn about their literary heritage.
Reed Wagner of Bismarck High School
was a finalist in North Dakota's 2013
State Poetry Out Loud Contest.
Throughout the competition, he came to appreciate poetry
and enjoyed expressing himself
through poems he felt connected to.
[guitar plays in bright rhythm]
¦
Poetry Out Loud is a poetry competition where
it starts out in classrooms and then the whole school,
and then it'll eventually go to state and then nationals,
and kids from all these areas get together, they choose poems.
It starts out with just two poems and they have to
memorize it and then interpret it and they have to recite it.
You can't move a whole lot; it's almost all your voice.
You can move a little bit, but the more you move,
the less likely you are to win.
Poetry Out Loud makes a list of poems
and you can go on their website to find the poems.
And there actually are requirements
for the poems you choose.
One of them has to be 25 lines or less, and another one
has to be from an author from the pre-20th century.
It's a little overwhelming
because they have a lot of poems.
There's a huge database, but you just kinda have to go through it
and look at the ones you find you're interested in.
It's important to understand what your poem is about
and that's actually a big process we went through.
We had to read into them and think about what they meant,
and not just to the author, but to us.
And it really shows when you can connect to your poem.
When I first started reading poetry,
I was pretty confused by it,
but as I looked more into it and I looked at the words,
I could see what the author was trying to get across.
"I felt a funeral in my brain
And mourners to and fro
Kept treading, treading,
Till it seemed that sense was breaking through.
And when they all were seated,
A service like a drum
Kept beating, beating,
Till I thought my mind was going numb.
I decided to enter because I thought
it'd be a good experience for me to actually compete
and try at something, because normally
I'm not a very competitive person.
I wanted to see how far I could go with it
and I thought some competition would do me good-- and it did!
I won the classroom competition, I won the school competition,
and then I went on to get third place in the state competition.
(woman) Congratulations, our third place winner is Reed Wagner
from Bismarck High School; come on up here Reed.
[applause]
(Reed) I was extremely nervous,
even in the classroom and school competitions.
When I went up there, my heart was beating so hard
that I could hear it in my head.
During the state competition,
I had such a hard time keeping my cool,
'cause I was one of the first people up
and then I'd have to wait for everyone else to do their poem.
While I was performing, I did my best to put it out of my head.
I just thought, give people the chance to hear another story.
I am very happy I did Poetry Out Loud.
I think I gained confidence from it.
I put myself through something I can do really well.
I accomplished something and my family was so proud of me.
"Through that window
All else being extinct except itself and me,
I saw the struggle of darkness against darkness.
Within the room, it turned and turned,
Dived downward.
Then I saw how order might, if chaos wished, become
And saw the darkness crush upon itself."
I've just learned to appreciate poetry more
and that no matter how short or long it is,
it always has something unique for every person.
You can look at it in so many different ways.
It's just really beautiful in a sense, how simple they can be,
and then how in depth
and how meaningful they can also be.
My third poem was "Actaeon" by A.E. Stallings.
And I chose this one because it's a little more funny
than my previous two poems, which are a little more dark.
This one's more just about getting back at someone.
Actaeon made fun of Artemus, the goddess of hunting.
She decided to put a curse on him
that would turn him into a stag.
This is the Bismarck State Capitol grounds,
and I chose this area because it's about hunting and nature,
and as you can see, there's plenty of nature around here.
"Actaeon," by A.E. Stallings.
"The hounds, you know them all by name.
You fostered them from purblind whelps
At their dam's teats, and you have to come to know
The music of their yelps:
High-strung Anthee, the brindled ***,
The blue-tick coated Philomel,
And freckled Chloe,
Who would fetch a pretty price if you would sell--
All fleet of foot, and swift to scent,
Inexorable once on the track,
Like angry words you might have meant,
But do not mean, and can't take back.
There was a time when you would brag
Of how they would bay and rend apart
The hopeless belling from a stag.
You falter now for the foundered heart.
Desires you nursed of a winter night--
Did you know then why you bred them--
Whose needling milk-teeth used to bite
The master's hand that leashed and fed them?"