PA’s school-wide Poetry Out Loud (POL) competition will be held in the library on Jan. 30 at 6 p.m.

Poetry Out Loud, organized by English teachers Ms. Ficken and Ms Gelinas, is a national competition where students memorize and perform famous poems in front of an audience and judges.

Each poem is judged using a rubric that focuses on a physical presence, evidence of understanding, voice and articulation, dramatic appropriateness and overall performance.

Students must choose three poems, where one poem is under 25 lines long and another is by a pre-20th century poet with the poetry selections available on the organization’s website.

“Students distinguish themselves through their interpretation and understanding of the poem they choose,” said Ms. Ficken. “Each student will choose to add gestures, facial expression or tone to convey the  meaning of each poem.”

The first place winner at PA goes on to compete in the regional competition against 60 other schools at Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU) in March. The winners of the regional competition perform at the state competition in Concord. The top readers are then sent to the national competition in Washington, D.C.

Winners of the competitions receive scholarships and awards.

In the past, colleges such as New England College, The New Hampshire institute of the Arts and SNHU have awarded scholarships.

However, POL offers more than monetary incentives.

“Poetry Out Loud builds self-confidence, and some enjoy the thrill of the competition,” said Ms. Ficken. “It creates lifelong lovers of poetry and creative writing, and students improve their analytical skills through reading and interpreting a variety of poems.”

Recently, Ms. Ficken and Ms. Gelinas invited poets S. Stephanie and Michael Cobb to PA to help students prepare for the competition.

“It was a successful day working with students and professionals,” said Ms. Ficken. “Many students plan on moving on to compete in our school competition after participating in the workshop.”

As for the charge that poetry is an obsolete art form in the contemporary world, Ms. Ficken disagrees.

“Poetry is not obsolete at all,” she said. “I believe that students just need to know that poetry isn’t a scary thing and it’s okay if you interpret it differently than someone else.”