Georgia Misses Final Cut for Poetry Reading Contest

WASHINGTON — Sadly, a young Georgia poet sounded his last stanza before the conclusive round of verses began Tuesday night.

After advancing to the final dozen competitors, Elijah P. Orengo was defeated as the phrases faded into silence in the third annual Poetry Out Loud National Recitation Contest held on the campus of George Washington University. The winner was Shawntay A. Henry of the U.S. Virgin Islands.

"Everybody was really, really good," said Orengo. "But I came in the top 12 out of 200,000 students and I've got two years to go."

The 16-year-old sophomore at Westlake High School in Fulton County appeared first and recited "Sentimental," a free verse by Albert Goldbarth. Thus began this interpretive competition of alliteration, metaphor and simile, of rhyme and rhythm and raw rhetoric, amongst all these vibrant teenaged voices.

"Poetry was originally an oral art ... great words, powerfully spoken," recalled Dana Gioia, chairman of the National Endowment of the Arts. He said the contestants are asked to "memorize and recite great poems."

The program "starts with the idea that poetry is to be experienced," he said, and has an "ambitious goal."

"We want to help restore the pleasure to poetry," he said.

Poetry Out Loud is sponsored by a non-profit group called the Poetry Foundation, which is based in Chicago, and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency. More than 200,000 students competed at local and state contests in all states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Fifty-two winners came to Washington for the national contest and those were culled to twelve for the final night.

The dozen finalists all recited two poems. Orengo chose "Beauty" by Tony Hoagland as his second effort. The same poem had been recited in the first round by Shawntay A. Henry of the Virgin Islands.

Personal interpretation is the essence of a poetry contest.

When he faces and addresses the audience, Orengo said, "I want you to feel what I felt when I first understood the poem."

"I have a passion for the arts," said Orengo. "I want to express the idea that I am a poet, that I can recite other people's poems and make them my own."

He also writes poetry — composing a collection of more than 100 poems, some traditional, some free verse.

"I like to put my thoughts on paper," he explained.

After the second round, the judges chose five of the twelve finalists to advance and recite a third poem. Orengo was among the other seven whose evening ended here. The Georgian had picked Sonnet 29 by William Shakespeare for his third entry.

Orengo said he will be better prepared next year and know more about what kinds of poems that the judges like. He vowed to return.