Deftly reciting the lines of poems by Li-Young Lee and Robert Creeley, Mount Shasta High School’s Rachel Cooper won the right to represent Siskiyou County at the statewide Poetry Out Loud contest in Sacramento next month.
Four students, including Golden Eagle Charter School’s Sarah Bryan, Sisson Elementary's Morgan Hranban and Etna High School’s Atticus Kramer competed for the honor during the countywide finals last week at the College of the Siskiyous Ford Theater.
Bryan, who was both this year’s and last year’s second place finisher, recited “A March in the Ranks Hard-Prest and the Road Unknown,” by Walt Whitman and “To Fashion,” by Elizabeth Moody. Bryan will attend the competition if Cooper is unable.
Hraban chose to recite two classic poems by well known poets: “Jabberwocky,” by Lewis Carroll and “The Tiger,” by William Blake.
Kramer, who is a freshman, chose the poems “It Couldn’t Be Done,” by Edgar Guest, and “Thoughtless Cruelty,” by Charles Lamb.
Cooper’s heartfelt performance of Lee’s “The Gift” and Creeley’s “For Love” left the judges and audience in awe.
“I was hanging on every word with my mouth open,” said Siskiyou Arts Council executive director Lauri Sturdivant.
“All of the performers are very good at what they do,” she added. “Every one of them is just going to get better and better.”
The winner of next month’s statewide competition will move on to the Poetry Out Loud nationals in Washington D.C. in April. The winner recieves over $20,000 in scholarships, Sturdivant said.
Poetry Out Loud is an initiative from the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with the Siskiyou Arts Council and California Arts Council. This is the third year MSHS students have participated in the program, coached by Mount Shasta High School teacher Sue Villarreal and local poet Nikolas Allen.
To learn more about Poetry Out Loud, to read the text of the poems recited and more, visit www.poetryoutloud.org.