CASCADE COUNTY, Mont. - After 16 years of poem competitions through âPoetry Out Loud,â Montana got its first ever national win in any category thanks to a student from Belt. With that under her belt, she plans on continuing her competitive streak in the art form.Â
11th Grader Brady Drummond, who goes to Belt High School, says she expresses her love for writing and the outdoors through poetry, bringing both to the national scene.Â
After growing up around books, Brady got into poetry as a freshman, writing whatever came to mind. âIt kinda sounds cheesy but itâs really free and open, and you can write about anything you want,â she said. Â
“It is truly inspirational to hear the thoughts, experiences, feelings, and ideas of Poetry Out Loud participants in their own voice, their own words, demonstrating that poetry can be both intimate and ubiquitous,” said Amy Stolls, director of Literary Arts at the National Endowment for the Arts. “Congratulations to this year’s Poetry Ourselves winners.”
Student participants of the Poetry Out Loud program memorize and recite works of classic and contemporary poetry. Recognizing that many Poetry Out Loud participants also create their own work, Poetry Ourselves was launched in 2016 as a part of the National Endowment for the Arts’ 50th anniversary as a way to encourage student creativity. These winning poems will be highlighted on the NEA’s blog in May.
In the cavity of willful destruction we
long for the Sisyphean
grow back stronger
fill the cracks with gold
confession:
as though graphite dipped in sun were not still lead
paperweight tied to feet kissing
the bottom of the sea
we pull up the head attached to the shoulders
that pull up the torso attached to the legs
that stand on two shaking feet
pulley and lever simple machines
strings attached to sinews of tendon between
and back to blade of shoulder
we claim the weight of the world on our shoulders
as if it were ours
spike in heart
Norwell High School senior well versed for Poetry Out Loud nationals
By Natachi Onwuamaegbu Globe Correspondent,Updated April 30, 2021, 3:23 p.m.
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Rose E. Hansen recorded â and re-recorded â her entry for this year s virtual competition.Courtesy of Rose Hansen
It took Norwell High School senior Rose E. Hansen more than 90 tries to record three poems for this yearâs Poetry Out Loud national competition.
Hansen is more accustomed to live performance: the tension-filled air backstage, the endless weeks of practice followed by the adrenaline rush of a single show and that wave of applause.
But this year, the event is virtual â which means the stage was shifted to Hansenâs bedroom. And the only live audience member was herself, staring back from her iPhone camera.
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Wednesday, April 28, 2021 - New York Times bestselling author Blaine Harden discusses one of the most persistent alternative facts in American history about a missionary, a tribe, a massacre, and a myth that shaped the American West. His his new book, “Murder at the Mission,” exposes the hucksterism and self-interest at the root of American myth-making, and of the problems that can arise when history is told only by the victors. ~~~ Bill Thomas joins us with highlights from this year’s Poetry Out Loud competition in North Dakota.