Roses are red, violets are blue, Trojans are smart, and we know poetry too. Besides English class, there aren’t too many opportunities for students to familiarize themselves with poetry. However, the Poetry Out Loud contest, coordinated by English teacher Ignacio Mendez, offers students a chance to tip their toes into the world of poetry. The rewards for the competition include a hundred dollar cash prize for the winner and a two hundred prize for their school/organization, five hundred dollars to buy material for poetry is awarded to the schools/organizations representing the top twelve finalists, and the winner from each state receives a two hundred dollar, all expenses paid trip to compete at the National Finals in Washington, DC. 

The Poetry Out Loud program works with local organizations to bring the contest to high schools across the country. The program was created in 2006 by the National Endowment of the Arts to help high school students improve upon their public speaking skills, promote confidence, and teach them more about the history of literature. Though Mendez is the coordinator for the program at Alisal, it is an outside organization. 

This was the seventh year Mendez coordinated the Poetry Out Loud competition. The program came to Alisal after another teacher brought it up to Mendez. “I looked into the information and I realized that this was a great opportunity for my students,” he said. 

Initially, Mendez asked his students to participate as an assignment for his English class. Later on, he talked to his colleagues and announced the competition in the morning announcements to make it a school wide competition. 

In the past, the school has gone as far as the state competition. “We had one student, my second year I did this, she finished top ten in the state,” Mendez said. “She had a realistic chance to represent Alisal High, that’s the farthest we’ve ever gone.”

Participants are asked to choose two poems from the Poetry Out Loud America 250 Online Anthology, an online search for approved poetry. To honor America’s 25th anniversary, the poems this year will honor the richness of American history and culture. 

Participants first compete at the school level, where they are asked to recite their poems from memory in two rounds. The runner up and finalists are then asked to compete at the county level, then state and should they progress, they go on to the national level. 

The judges at school are provided rubrics by the program with which to evaluate the delivery of the poems. The rubric scores the contestants based on physical presence, voice and articulation, interpretation, evidence of understanding, and overall performance. “It’s a lot performance based,” Pulido said. “The accuracy score, which is a memorization score, we don’t get. So there are actually some people that I thought performed their entire poems but I found out they missed a bunch of lines.” 

In addition to winning money prizes, the competition offers students the chance to get in touch with their creativity and allows them to learn more of what poetry actually is. “I’ve had kids who don’t like poetry, who, after participating in it, really start to enjoy it, and they realize how much poetry has been part of their lives,” Mendez said. 

Furthermore, many students that did participate agreed it was worthwhile.“Just give it a try,” senior Milagros Santiago said. “It’s fun, you learn strengths you don’t know you have.” 

Six contestants participated in the contest held in the Mullins Theater on the 23rd of January. Seniors Milagros Santiago Gonzalez, Aldo Barron-Gonzalez, Judith Ascencio, Elizabeth Bojorquez, and Marisol Mederos-Mata, alongside sophomore Ignacio Mendez Jr. took a shot at this year’s school competition. “She’s [Pulido] the one that kind of convinced me and told me that I could have a chance to win,” Santiago said. “I feel like that motivated me to keep on doing this.” 

The judges, Veronica Pulido, Jared Hart, and Jaquelyn Gallardo declared Santiago and Barron as the finalist and runner up. There was a tie between Barron and Ascencio but ultimately, accuracy was the deal breaker. “I was looking for people who were confident in themselves,” Pulido said. “And it was demonstrated with Milagros.” 

The contestants performed two poems of their choosing. Barron, the runner up, performed Aunt Sue’s Stories by Langston Hughes and Thou Art My Lute by Paul Laurence Dunbar and Santiago, the finalist, performed The Debt also by Paul Laurence Dunbar and The Modern Woman to Her Lover by Margaret Widdemer. “One of the primary poems that I really liked and picked was Aunt Sue’s Stories,” Barron said. “It just kind of hit close to home because the fact that their stories carry such emotion, which is what the poem is about, they tell more than just a story, they tell history.” 

A week later, Santiago and Barron went on to compete at the Black Box Theatre on January 31st. There, they competed with other students from other high schools in the city. Barron recited Aunt Sue’s Story and Santiago recited the two poems she performed initially. 

The judges at the Black Box Theatre were authors and poets themselves. After the first round, those that were chosen went on to the second round to perform their second poem. In the end, Santiago tied with another contestant for second place. 

Both Barron and Aldo received certificates and Santiago won a $100 cash prize.”I feel proud of myself,” Santiago said. “I feel that I had really high expectations. I really thought I could have won first place, but I’m really proud of what I did and a lot of work I put into this.”

 Despite their efforts, Alisal will not proceed to the next level. Nonetheless, both contestants were content with themselves for giving the competition a chance and they gave their performances their all. “I feel pretty thrilled that I was able to showcase my poem,” Barron said. “Especially because I worked really hard with Mr. Mendez to present my poem at its maximum ability and make sure any errors I made during the school performance were corrected before the county competition.”

Though the competition for this school year is over, the Poetry Out Loud contest will be back next year. All students, regardless of grade, are permitted to join so long as they pick two poems from the Poetry Out Loud website, meet the deadline to submit their poems to Mendez, and are prepared to perform their poems. 

Interested students can learn more about the competition by visiting Mendez in room 565 or by visiting the Poetry Out Loud website. “If anyone’s interested, they’re welcome to come by and talk to me,” Mendez said. “I’d be happy if they would like my help to assist them with how to present and learn the poem.” 

Students don’t have to wait for it to be announced to start learning more about it, in fact, they can start preparing now. “The website, Poetry Out Loud.org, is open all year so students can technically look at the poems, memorize them ahead of time,” Mendez said. “Learn them, look them up on Youtube, TikTok, look all over social media and start practicing.”