Register Now for Poetry Out Loud, Deadline Nov. 18

I have co-sponsored Roosevelt High School's Poetry Out Loud program for the three years that our school has participated. It is one of the most rewarding things I do all year. No other aspect of my career shows me so visibly, so tangibly, that I'm making a difference. Any politician or education official who wants me to provide hard evidence of student growth should come see the Poetry Out Loud process from beginning to end.

Students begin by choosing poems to perform. When they first choose them, they don't understand the poems nearly as well as they think they do. They have whole phrases and lines and even stanzas that they skim through, thinking they know enough of the lines to get by. However, by the time they've attended a few after-school workshops, gone line by line and syllable by syllable through their poems, and practiced and practiced and practiced again, they have an intimacy with the text that they won't experience at any other time in their high school career. The difference between the first practice run of a poem and the on-stage performance at the school finals is so dramatic that you'd think the growth took place over years, not weeks. In fact, if you host a school finals, you'll notice growth between the first round and the second! That's about as close as you can come to instant gratification in our profession.

… I have a story about a student named Hannah who loved books and who hung around Poetry Out Loud performers but never auditioned until her senior year. She was a shy young woman, and the last place you'd normally find her was on a stage in front of an audience. She chose a funny poem ("Immigrant Picnic," by Gregory Djanikian) for one of her two poems, but the poem would only be funny if it was done right. When Hannah came to her first Poetry Out Loud practice, there was no chance of her coaxing any laughs out of the audience. But she practiced, and practiced, and found the courage to be comfortable on the stage. The night of our school finals, Hannah nailed the poem. The audience was with her, and Hannah got them to laugh at all of the right moments. She even smiled herself when the line called for it. (I'm fighting tears of pride and happiness for her as I type this, nine months later.) That night, Hannah's performance was as essential to our program as (former student) Kelly (Stec's) winning performance was. Hannah got the audience to laugh. She showed the audience that a good poem can contain humor. If you host a Poetry Out Loud finals at your school, the experience will be meaningful for everyone who participates, not just your winner.

So do it. Contact the Michigan Humanities Council. Sign up. Be a part of Poetry Out Loud. Watch how much your students grow. Prepare yourself to be so proud of your performers that you'll fight tears, or maybe you'll just let them roll.

I hope to see you at the state finals in March.

Good luck,

Rob Keast
Wyandotte Public Schools

Out of my sheer lack of wanting to be embarrassed in front of parents, audience members and outside judges, I prepared for the school finals. I was not by any means trying to win, and I spent several hours trying (unsuccessfully) to convince my parents and grandparents that coming to watch was a waste of their time. When I got on the stage to perform, though, something clicked. I still did not love it, but I found myself performing to the best of my ability. I found, on some level, an aesthetic beauty in the way words form and float through the air, as if given a tangible body by the speaker. Watching the other competitors affect the audience’s mood just by speaking things written by someone else gave me an appreciation, at least, for why this was done. I can still recall standing on the stage with all the others at the end thinking thankfully that there was no way I was going to win; I could be done with it without having embarrassed myself. Then, when my name was called as the winner, I am sure my face was pricelessly unhappy, because my mother’s laughter was audible over anything else.

Despite the fact that I still did not want to be a part of it, I worked with Mr. Keast on my poems for the state finals until I was near tears in frustration. After trying for hours, mixing up an “an” and a “the” was enough for me to say that I didn’t want to be a part of it any more. We persevered, though, and eventually got my performances to a place I was happy with. Though I did not finish in the top four, I knew that I could walk out with my head held high about the recitations I had done that day.  I even agreed to re-audition for the next year, though rather grudgingly. By the time state finals junior year rolled around, though, I began to enjoy Poetry Out Loud, and through my senior year it became the way I defined myself in the context of Roosevelt. When it was all over, I could sincerely say that I loved Poetry Out Loud more than anything else I had done throughout high school.

My favorite memory through all of my years in the competition was the final practice that the three of us held together in the auditorium at Roosevelt. I was working through my third poem, “The Hospital Window” by James L. Dickey, and they had each given me things to tweak. I said it for the last time, and when I looked at the two of them and saw their expressions, I came to a realization that it had taken me three years to make: Mr. Keast and Mr. Baker had just waited four hours for me to finish all of my other after school commitments so that we could work together. They were not in any way forced to do this. They were here because they cared. They wanted me to succeed. As a student, I have never had a greater feeling that an educator really saw me as a person; as a person, I am hard-pressed to recall anyone who has shown more faith in me than Mr. Keast and Mr. Baker have, and I am more thankful for that than I will ever be able to express to them.

Many of the details have been glazed over, because three years of my life would be hard to cover, even viewing nothing more than Poetry Out Loud. To make clear what came out of it, let me say this: I would not be the person I am today if it were not for this program. I have gained huge advantages in my ability to do close reading and the understanding that, particularly in poetry, every single word means something. I am certain that my success on the AP Literature test is largely due to that which I learned from Poetry Out Loud. Most importantly, though, I have learned to cherish the difference between teacher and educator. I will always be grateful for the confidence that Mr. Keast and Mr. Baker inspired in me; they have shown me what it truly means to care. Now that I work as an intern for the Michigan Humanities Council, I feel that every teacher should be made aware of the huge impact they have the potential to make through Poetry Out Loud. It takes time and effort, yes, but the great love, respect, and gratefulness received in return is irreplaceable.