001good morning and welcome to this year's poetry out loud competition organized by Mr will Higgins the Lead Teacher in the English Department and we have 12 contestants today they'll both uh they'll all be reciting two poems and they will be scored on accuracy as well as performance overall so our first contestant today is Mackenzie Boucher [Applause] hi guys I'm Mackenzie Boucher and I'm going to recite to acquainted with the Knight by Robert Frost I have been one acquainted with the Knight I've walked out in the rain and back in the rain I've out walked the furthest City Light I've looked down the saddest City Lane I have passed by the Watchmen on his feet and dropped my eyes unwilling to explain I've Stood Still and stopped the sound of feet one far away and interrupted
002Cry came over houses from another Street but not to call me back or say goodbye and further still at an Earthly height one luminary clock against the sky proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right I have been one acquainted with the night foreign [Applause] our next recitation this morning will be by Mohammed hajazi [Applause] foreign in the lull the afternoon sun warms the linseed field the flowers are quiet they're bright subdued in the green while the mind wanders to the emerald mosque upon the hill built around a flowing spring the easy app Solutions and ablutions in that mosque where the spring water has been let loose to meander over marble Courtyards and inner Chambers across the geometric green tiled floor that cools the heels of the faithful thank you [Applause] next up with her
003first poem is Holly raposo foreign [Applause] by Michael McClure it's the mystery of the hunt that intrigues me that drives us like Lemmings but cautiously the search for a bright Square Cloud the scent of Lemon Verbena and to learn rules for the game the sea otters play in the surf it is the small things and the secrets behind them that filled the heart the pattern the spirit the fire redeem and that linked them together and pull their freedom into our senses the smell of a shrub a cloud the action of animals the rising the exuberance when the mystery is unveiled it is these small things that when brought into Vision become an Inferno [Applause] and with her first recitation Charlotte French [Applause] the current isolationism by Camille rankine in the half-light I am most at
004home my shadow is company when I feel hot I push a button to make it stop I mean this stain on my mind that I can't get out how human I seem like modern man I traffic in extinction I have a gift like an animal I sustain a flock of birds when touched I scatter I won't approach until the back is turned my heart betrays and I confess I am afraid how selfish of me when there's no one here I have the distance between our bodies infinitesimally in this long passageway I pose against the wallpaper dig my heels in catch the Light in my vision the back door opens on a garden that is Always In Bloom the dogs are chained so they can't attack like I know they want to and in the next
005yard over honey bee swarm and their sound is huge [Applause] and with her his first poem this morning we have Saeed achalov thank you [Applause] I married by Laureen nydecker I married in the world's Dark Black Knight for someone if not Repose at the close someone I hid with him from the long range guns I hid with him with from the long-range guns We Lay leg in the cupboard head and closet a slit of light at no bird Dawn untaught I thought he drank too much I say I married and lived unburied I thought foreign up next we have Brady Kai all right 300 goats by Naomi Nye in icy Fields is water flowing in the tank will they huddle together Warm Bodies pressing is the year the goat or the Sheep Scholars debating Chinese
006zodiac follower leader oh lead them to a warm corner little ones toward bulkier bodies lead them to the brush which cuts the icy wind another frigid night swooping down aren't you worried about them I asked my friend who lives by herself on the ranch of goats far from here near the town of Ozuna she shrugs not really they know what to do they're goats [Applause] foreign Swami [Applause] to Helen by Edgar Allan Poe Helen thy beauty is to me like those nice see in barks of yore that gently or a perfume see the weary way worn Wanderer bore to his own native Shore on Desperate Seas long won't to roam thy Hyacinth hair thy classic face thine heirs have brought me home to the glory that was Greece and the Grandeur that was Rome Lo
007and yawn brilliant window Niche how statue-like I see these stand the Agate lamp within thy hand ah psyche from the regions which are Holy Land [Applause] and with her first poem we have Alexandra Gonzalez Lopez [Applause] it is a dangerous thing to forget the climate of your birthplace to choke out the voices of dead relatives when in dreams they call you by your secret name it is dangerous to spurn the clothes you were born to wear for the sake of fashion dangerous to use weapons and sharp instruments you're not familiar with dangerous to disdain the plaster Saints before which your mother kneels praying with embarrassing fervor that you will survive in the place you have chosen to live a bear called room with no pictures on the walls a forgetting place where she fears she
008will die of loneliness and exposure Jesus she says is a dangerous thing [Applause] with his first poem this morning Jacob Benoit [Applause] words by Polly Murray we are spendthrifts with words we squander them toss them like pennies in the air arrogant words Angry Words cruel words cowardly words shy words tiptoeing from mouth to ear but the slowly rot words of love and the thunderous words of heartbreak those we hoard [Applause] foreign Sydney Campanelli [Applause] April midnight by Arthur Simons side by side roaming through the streets at midnight roaming to oh man hold on this is bad anyways side by side through the streets at midnight roaming together through the tumultuous night of London in the miraculous April weather yeah roaming together Under The Gaslight days work over how the city how the spring calls to
009us here in the city calls to the heart from the heart of a lover cool the wind blows fresh in our faces cleansing entrancing you the dancer and I watch you dancing bro uh good to be roaming good to be here together good to be roaming oh even in London even at midnight love or like in a Lover's gloaming yes I can okay you the dancer and I the dreamer children together um wandering lost in the night of London in the miraculous April weather [Applause] foreign with her first recitation Alexandra kojakaru [Applause] November con Flower by Gene tumor Boll weevil's coming and the winter is cold made Khan stocks look Rusty Seasons old and cotton scarces any Southern snow was Vanishing the branch so pinched and slow felt in its function as the Autumn rake
010drought-fighting soil had caused the soil to take all water from the streams can I start over foreign people start again reciting her first poem Alexandra kochikaru [Applause] November conflower by Gene tumor Boll weevil's coming and the winter is cold made cotton socks look Rusty Seasons old and cotton scarces any Southern snow was Vanishing the branch so pinched and slow Ed in its function as the Autumn rake drought fighting soil had caused the soil to take all the water from the streams dead birds were found in Wells 100 feet below the ground such was the season when the flower bloomed old folks were startled and it soon assumed significance superstitions saw something it had never seen before brown eyes that loved without a trace of fear Beauty so sudden for that time of year [Applause] and
011our last contestant for round one is Steven we [Applause] semi-splendid by Tracy K Smith you Flinch something flickers not fleeing your face my heart hammers at the ceiling telling my tongue to turn it down thank you do you mind if I restart now okay too late yeah I I found out where I had um left off but uh too late that something climbs leaps is falling now across us like the prank of an icy brainy Lord I chose the wrong word I am wrong for not choosing merely to smile to pull you toward me and away from what you think of as that other me who wanders lost among among whom the many the rare I wish you didn't care I watch you watching her her very Shadow is a rage that trashes the rooms
012of your eyes do you claim surprise at what she wants the poor girl pelted with despair who flits from grief to grief isn't it you she seeks and if you blame her know that she blames you for not choosing her but me love is never fair but do we should we care [Applause] foreign s wait for round two to begin I did want to introduce or mention all of the judges behind the scenes this morning we have our prompter English Department's Kimberly Rivard we have our accuracy judge again the English departments and Fife field her lovely assistant teleporting all the information over is Miss Tara Kearney also English Department then we have our four judges this morning we have former English teacher and Associate principal Rachel chavier [Applause] we have The Dashing John Karen the
013amazing special education teacher Anna Soares the amazing Wesley Lima and finally the English Department's Jessie grieve [Applause] and we'll take just a minute and then we will roll into round two foreign register then you can't leave here doing that [Music] foreign [Applause] the Paradox by Paul Lawrence Dunbar I'm the Mother of Sorrows I'm the Ender of grief I am the bud in the blossom I'm late Falling Leaf I'm thy priest and my poet I am thy serf and thy King I cure the tears of the heart sick when I come near they shall sing why are my hands as a Snowdrop sore at my fingers is clay dark is my frown as the midnight fair is my brow as the day battle and War my Minions doing my will is divine I am the calmer
014of passions peace is an ursuling of mine Speak to Me Gently or curse me seek me or fly from my sight I am thy fool in the morning Thou Art my slave in the night down to the Grave will I take thee out from the noise of the strife then shalt thou see me and know me death then no longer but life then shalt thou sing at my coming kiss me with passionate breath clasp me and smile to have thought me ought save the filament of death come to me brother when weary come one thy Lonely Heart swells I'll guide thy footsteps and Lead thee down where the dream alone dwells [Applause] foreign with his second poem sophomore Muhammad hijazi [Applause] foreign I too by Langston Hughes I Too Sing America I am the darker
015brother they sent me to eat in the kitchen when company comes but I laugh and eat well and grow strong tomorrow I'll be at the table when company comes nobody there say to me eat in the kitchen then besides they'll see how beautiful I am and be ashamed I Too Am America thank you [Applause] with her last poem this morning senior Holly raposo [Applause] The Last Word by Nikki Grimes I am a door metaphor waiting to be open you'll find no lock no key all are free to enter up will simply step over the threshold remember to dress for travel though visitors have been known to get carried away foreign with her second recitation sophomore Charlotte French [Applause] burning the old year by Naomi shihab Nye letters swallow themselves in seconds notes friends tied to
016the doorknob transparent Scarlet paper Sizzle like mothwings marry the air so much of any year is flammable lists of vegetables partial poems orange swirling flame of days so little is a stone where there was something and suddenly isn't and absence shouts celebrates leaves a space and I begin again with the smallest numbers quick Dance Shuffle of losses and leaves only the things I didn't do crackle after the Blazing dies [Applause] all right foreign with his second poem Junior Syed achalov [Applause] a keeping things whole by Mark strand in a field I am the field of absence this is always the case wherever I am I am what is missing when I walk I part the air and always the air moves in to fill the spaces where my body's been we all have reasons for
017moving I move to keep things whole thank you [Applause] with his last poem this morning Junior Brady Kai [Applause] Pinocchio by Ray armentrout strand string in this dream the paths cross and cross again they are spelling a real boy out of repetition each one is the one real boy each knows he must be wrong about this but he can't feel how the fish and the fishermen the pilot the princess the firemen and the ones on fire [Applause] and now with his second reading Junior shubham Swami catch a little rhyme by Eve Miriam once upon a time I caught a little rhyme I set it on the floor but it ran right out the door I chased it on my bicycle but it melted to an icicle I scooped it up in my hat but it
018turned into a cat I caught it by the tail but it stretched into a whale I followed it in a boat but it changed into a goat when I fed it tin and paper it became a tall skyscraper then it grew into a kite and flew far out of sight [Applause] foreign with her second poem this morning sophomore Alexandra Gonzalez Lopez [Applause] the arrow and the song by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow I shot an arrow into the air it fell to Earth I knew not where four so swiftly it flew its sight cannot follow it in its flight I breathed a song into the air it fell to Earth I knew not where for who has sight so keen and strong that it can follow the fight of song long long afterward in an oak I
019found the arrows still unbroke and the song from beginning to end I found in the heart of a friend [Applause] thank you with his second poem Junior Jacob Benoit [Applause] Buffalo Bills by E.E Cummings Buffalo Bills defunct who used to ride a water smooth Silver Stallion and break one two three four five pigeons just like that Jesus he was a handsome man and what I want to know is how do you like your blue-eyed boy Mr death thank you [Applause] foreign next up with her second poem we have Junior Sydney Campanelli [Applause] acquainted with the Night by Robert Frost I have been one acquainted with the Knight I have walked out in rain and back in rain I have out walked the furthest City Light I have looked down the status City Lane and pass
020by I pass by The Watchmen on his beat and dropped my eyes unwilling to explain I have Stood Still and stopped the sound of feet when far away an interrupted Cry came over houses from another Street but not to call me back or to say goodbye further still at an Earthly height one luminary clock against the sky proclaiming the time neither wrong nor right I have been one acquainted with the night [Applause] with her second recitation senior Alexandra kochikaru and I wonder where you are by Tanaya Winder sacred Stars blanket a nighttime sky each light reminds us of the preciousness of life your memory lives along the Milky Way each twinkle saying don't forget my name it's an epidemic a sickness of the Earth a war we enter as soon as we are birthed indigenous
021women girls our two spirit two when did this world start disappearing you [Applause] foreign this morning will be recited by sophomore Stephen we [Applause] the road not taken by Robert Frost two roads diverged in the yellow wood and sorry I could not travel both and be one Traveler long I stood and looked down one as far as I could to where it bent in the undergrowth and then took the other as just as Fair and having perhaps the better claim because it was grassy and wanted where though as for that the passing there had worn them really about the same and both that morning equally lay in leaves no step had trodden black oh I kept the first for another day yet knowing how way leads on to way I doubted if I should ever
022come back I shall be telling this with a sigh somewhere ages and ages hence two roads diverged in a wood and I I took the One Less Traveled by and that has made all the difference [Applause] as we take some time to tally the results of both rounds let's get a big round of applause for all the contestants this morning [Applause] we'd like to also do a couple of thank yous first we'd like to thank superintendent Dr Gifford for joining us this morning as well as DCTV headed by Peter Chase for all our filming and sound needs this morning and we'll be back in just a few minutes after we get the scores I am in front of the uh all right let's hear it again for all the contestants in this year's poetry out
023loud competition when you guys all try to get in the frame come on this side a little bit you know it seems like when you memorize poetry that the chief skill might be just memorization but really I think it's an act of Bravery to come up here and do this if you had asked me to do this when I was in high school I probably would have left um it's difficult to do to do this alone you know inside a classroom when we we do this but to come up on stage and do it into a microphone as it's being streamed it's very very difficult to do so congratulations to to everybody uh for participating today thank you Miss Lassie for emceeing this year's event [Applause] and also working out all of the tabulation issues
024that we had as we began so thank you I appreciate it all right uh the winner of this year's poetry out loud competition will get this beautiful edition of 100 Years of the best American short stories this is the first place prize the other thing that will happen too is that the first place winner will be invited to go on to the New England Regional Championship which is probably the beginning of February at some point where students from the south coast in Cape Cod will gather together I think it's about 12 to 15 students and there's a third round of poetry so students have to memorize a third poem does that feel does that feel scary you have to do a third poem and then the winner of that one will go on to the
025state championship which is probably in March and then there's a national competition in April and I think the winner of that one wins a pretty hefty scholarship prize uh at the end all right so why don't we start with our third place uh finalists today so and if you can come up and just kind of stand next to us uh when we announce your name so in third place is shubin come on up nice job in second place is Holly and the 2022 poetry out loud winner is Charlotte French [Applause] and that's it for poetry out loud thank you again judges thank you if you're still listening to this in your classroom and you know when this comes around again next year this starts really sometime in November if you're interested in doing this I'll
026send out a notice to everybody again around the school and if you're interested in participating you can come see me some classes will do it at the classroom level but that's it for this year thank you everybody [Applause]