Poetry Out Loud 2011

i know kansas public radio celebrates national poetry month when kamen entire and today one k pr presenting poetry out loud two thousand eleven to state the finals of the poetry recitation contest held recently in to peak at the six finalists from across the state bring the words of classic and contemporary poets to life the winner will compete in the national poetry out loud finals later this month we'll also hear some original poetry from the winners of the kansas otters clyde but first poetry out loud is designed to encourage students to learn about great poetry by memorizing performing and competing they can test begins in a high school classroom where students choose three poems to recite this six winners of the regional poetry out loud competition are devaney west of lawrence kaisha mills of shawnee mission allison williams of ottawa carry bingham of lynn's third season elder of wichita and andy johnson of

winter poetry allowed is sponsored by the kansas arts commission the national endowment for the arts and the kansas association of teachers of english we'll hear first from addy johnson of quencher reciting fairytale logic bite at stallings a contemporary poet in athens georgia fairy tales are full of impossible tasks dat became hands of the man eating goat or across the software can make in a leaky boat select the traits from a row of identical masks tiptoe up to six count desk next moment by not or they're in the phone directory by that

always it's impossible if someone asks you have like a magic with magic you have to believe they have something impossible up nicely languages snakes perhaps an invisible cloak your bag or only a joke the will to you liked and that must be down to marion wants to hand over your firstborn son these necessary to logic fly list at least next year's golden retrieval five mark doty

of new york the first american to win the prestigious ts eliot prize that also and sticks capture my teaching i don't think so why a squirrel oh joy actually scared sniff the way and i'm not thinking not going to ditch residue the ruling elite here larry years something the past half hour walk thinking of like you can never bring back or else you're in some fog concerning tomorrow is that what you call it my right too iris mann times

of war and we treat you this shiny black van masters bing dong cause you to hear now he's been disbarred that was killed and retrieval is by mark doty recited by eddie johnson of the winter that's allison williams of ottawa who recite emily dickinson's classic hope is the thing with others followed by broken promises by david kirby hope is the thing with feathers by emily dickinson hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul and sings the tune

without the words and never stops at all and sweetest and the galas heard and store must be the story that could bash the little bird that had so many more i heard it in the chilly slate and on the strangest see yet never in extremity it asked the crown of me food these

food is broken promises i imagine living in one times i've seen them playing cards under a single light bulb and tried to join a but they refused mean brutally knowing i would only let them wait i've seen them in the four years of leaders coming back late from the interval long after the others have taken their seats and in deserted shopping malls late at night period at things they can never buy

and i found them wandering in a word websites you have wanted this morning i caught on small and stupid too slow to get away it was only of homicide rates myself once and then forgot but its streams and kicked out again and rayon to join the others who look at me with her approach in their long sad faces when i junior them this carried away even though they will sleep in my heart tonight i he'd been for their grants and i look at how those promises as getting our six years children you i screamed you need you why

i had a chance to visit with allison williams after the poetry out loud competition where i asked her how she picked that poem broken promises and i picked it because i liked the buildup to the palm highlight that he used broken promises to look like people that he sees every day any changes it from people too occurrences in his own life compares it to a wandering what that he's seen himself than any he shows the audience that it's something that we all caught is it something you hate by in haiti back i mean he comes towards these broken promises in the run away from him you know and they'd behind his yard at night and he's the one that gave them life that there's no way a broken promise to never love you cause it's something so hurtful to anyone

and i just i just thought that the whale was written was beautiful i love it the comparison to something you can't physically tides so every single person it can see it become interested in it and reciting poetry and honestly it was through friend's ex and as far as i can remember back fourth graders i first started writing poetry and politics always been really really close i'm a the expression of my own life i mean i don't think i could function my feelings my emotions if i can write can have poetry you're reading is just it's amazing it's so it's a blessing to read other people's work to see the home where it's in their feelings will thank you for sharing it with us tonight and he's the mites we have one more poem from allison williams the fear center by andrew marvell although now known as the great seventeenth century british poet into marvel published very little work during his lifetime and was best known as a member of parliament and is a friend of john

milton again allison williams this bare sr by and your marshal to make a final conquest of all me lung did compose so sweets an enemy and whom both beauties to my death victory joining themselves and fatal harvey that was she with her eyes my heart is blind see with her voice might have it in my mind i try to flesh from one vote singly fair my disentangled soul itself might say breaking the cruel trembles of her hair but how should i have a way to be her slowly whose subtle art and visibly can read my letters of the dairy air i'd really they had been

easy fighting and some plain where they do you might hang an equal choice but all resistance against her as bane who has the advantage both of the ideas in police and all my forces needs must be and doesn't see having gained both the winds and sun that was allison williams from ottawa or next up devaney west from here in lawrence her first poem is advice to a profit by richard wilbur published in nineteen sixty one wilbur won the pulitzer prize for poetry in nineteen fifty six and was named as the second poet laureate of the united states in nineteen eighty seven here's devaney west advice to profit by richard wilbur when you come as you soon must to the streets of our city man died from

stating the obvious not explaining our fall but begging us in gods and eight had self pity spare us all worth the weapons air force and range long numbers that rocket the mind and slow and reckoning hearts will be left behind unable to fear what is too strange nor shall use carrots with talk of the death of the race how should we dream of this place about us the sun their fire believes troubled about us on the stones face speak of the world's own

change that we cannot conceive of an underhanded thing we know to our cost of the drought cloud crumbles the vines a blackened by frost how the view alters we couldn't believe that if you told us so that the white tailed deer will slip into perfect shade grown perfectly shy the liar avoid the reaches of our eye the jack ryan lose it's not gold record on the old ledge and had read laura dern as then us once it's gliding trout's done in a twinkling what should we be without the dolphins are adults return these things in which we have seen ourselves and spoke a profit how we shall climbing shoes forth when that lifetime is all the spell that laugh obscure

or broken in which means that the roads of our love and the cleaner source of our courage in which they're held this the locus of the stalin shell and all we mean or wishing me ask us asked us whether with a wordless roads are hard to sell fail us come demanding whether those will be lofty or longstanding win the bronze annals of the oak tree close devaney west next poem is famous by american contemporary poet naomi she had nih who is featured in the pbs series the united states of poetry and on the language of life with bill moyers them home is followed by him victims by nineteenth century british poet william ernest henley famous by naomi she had nine

the repair its status to the fish a loud voice is status to silence it's a new it's would inherit the earth before anybody said so the cat sleeping on the fence is famous to the birds watching him from the birdhouse the tier status briefly to the cheek the idea you carrie close your boston is dangerous to your boss the boat is famous to be more famous than the dress year which is famous only to florence i want to be famous the bench photograph it's a vista the

one who carries it and not at all famous to the one who is pictured i want to be famous to shuffling men who smile while crossing streets sticky children in grocery lines famous as the one who smiles back i want to be famous in a way only a status or a button hole not because i did anything spectacular but because it never forgot what it could do man

in vegas by william ernest henley out of the nights that covers me black as the picks from pauls pool i think whenever god slavery from mine and cultural soul in the fell clutch of circumstance i have not winced nor cried aloud under the blood sings a chance my head as bloody but unbowed beyond this place of wrath and tears lose but the horror of the cia and yet the menace of the year's finest and sell fine me i'm afraid it matters not

just straight be gates has charged with punishments the scroll i am the master of my fate i am the captain of my soul into this by william ernest henley recited by devaney west of lawrence next up kerry bingham of smoky valley high school in landsberg her first poem is her kind by anne sexton sex and was a twentieth century poets who turned to poetry following a nervous breakdown she won the pulitzer prize for poetry in nineteen sixty seven and committed suicide in nineteen seventy four at the age a forty six and now carry bingham i had gone out the vest which haunting the black hair grader at night dreaming you know i have done my pitch of a clean houses light by lights lonely gain twelve thing they're in our

mind a woman like that is not a woman quite i had been her kind and found the warm caves in the woods than two skillets carvings shelves closets silks in newell kids' faces the paris the worms in the elves whining rearranging the designed or like that business understand i have been her kind i mean your car driver wait a minute on the village's going by letting the last remnants survivor we're fine still by my by my ribs cracked rear wheels wind that does not seem to die i have been trying to carry big guns that stalin is a

war widow by nigerian pilot chris about me the bunny now lives and teaches in california the telephone never remains still the ticket at slams the static the breath of those he loved along dan foley kicking the ball rises and if every rage theory stems from time traders staring off into the distance land by cataracts another collector debris years ago and none of the longer joy of an ice cream truck and summer song between the paving stones between tea a cup and savvy pouring through time he woke that morning to the time when the letter came tired so like no flights were able to tease the police sting riding the elevator owned a floor after floor after floor each stop some small victory whittled from the hart senate that you slow these days that was

war widow we cited by kerry bingham of lynn's bird if you're just joining us we're listening to poetry out loud two thousand eleven the state finals of the poetry recitation contest held recently in topeka i'm j mcintyre this is k pr next up firmly held by the famous welsh poet dylan thomas read by susan elder of wichita fairy known by dylan thomas now is that i was too young and easy under the apple bows about the lilting house and happy as the grass was green the night about the dingle stai time let me hey ok and client called him in a daze of his eyes and among wagons i was praying for the apple towns and ones below a time iron lordly how big

trees and leaves trailing davies and barley down the revelers at the wind farm lie and as i was green and carefree famous among the bonds about the happy eid and singing as a farm was home in this ad as young once only time let me play and be going in the mercy of this means and dream and golden eye was time for men and herdsmen i can send to my door and the fox is on the hill the box clear and cold and the sabbath rang slowly in the pedals of the holy streams all the sun long it was running it was lovely and i hate the health high have the house the two teams

went at playing lonely and lottery and i am green as dr and knightley and it's a simple stars as i wrote to summer league the oh it's where bearing the farm away although to a long i heard the lesson among staples the night johnny it's flying with the ranks and the horses question and then two away like a londoner white with to do come back the companies sold it

it was oh sure it was this guy is doing every day so it must have been after the birth of the simple liked in the first spinning place the spellbound horses walking warm out of the winning dream stables are into the fields of praise and on among fox says and thousands by big day house under the new maid clouds and how in it

ways my wish of race through the house friday and not being i care that my sky blue trades that time allows in all these tuneful turning so few and such morning songs before the children dream and golden follow him out of greats not the night keratin the lamb lie days that time would take me up to this and while that the wrong lot about that shot of my hand and a man that is rising know waiting to leave i sit hearing him why would rip and then why did the foreign land oh as i was young

and easy in the mercy of his means time help me corinne and though i say in my chains like this he says an elder's next plan is by former us poet laureate ted kooser services nebraska i tend to say that ravel know rags with the snow gallup over the fields the telephone line streaming behind its bill and dust followed this box of red winged blackbirds on either side those deer all the ladies listening brian's their little windows adult by cataracts the

head a n cobb labs i'd broken tractors and other suspects so this is nebraska a sunday afternoon july dragging along with your hand out we using the hair and i don't like waiting on empty cups behind us out about the cedars talking deep in how he hops pollin and the news nah read the clowns you feel like that you feel like letting your tires go flat like letting them live though they nest in

your mouth whether like being known law and then that trapped in the weave of barking with jake invites he would be a man in your lap really wanted the road waiting for someone to wait do you feel like waving european alliance popping the end you write instead they need a handout fighting over the weekend over the houses yes

ma'am susan albers last poem is summit one sixteen by william shakespeare let me not to the magic shoe lines admitting patents lab is not law which alters winik alteration fines or bank is that the removal act of the milk oh no it isn't sexy and mock that looks on terrorists and is never shaken it is the star to every wandering black whose works i known

although he is tied to be taken lanza not time school though as the lips and cheeks with a music bending sickles compass come love altos not with his brief hours and weeks but they as it out even to the end to do it just the air and upon me proved i never met your no man ever lie that was suzanne elder of wichita reciting thunder won sixteen by william shakespeare i had a chance to visit with susan on or after the poetry out loud competition i asked her how she'd selected these three poems i

see many many hours just reading through all the palm center on and the website and i came to you services nebraska was one of the first ones i chose and it was just i knew it it was part of me you know we we drive every summer we drive to minnesota and driving through i let it was just i mean it was a lot like nebraska and it's i just knew the pan it because i knew the land and what it was i'm talking about so about one was an easy pick for me because it was me and then safer in hell is a minute because it's really when i'm english teacher's favorite ponds and so i was interested in an why he loved it then as i got deeper into it and the complexity of that and has so many different tones in an images that i just on love of the mall an urn the rare it especially because it's it's very fall palm and then i in shakespeare signing sixteen

and i knew i wanted to do something that was from shakespeare because i watch you and them but that i look through the songs they had and then now i'm just popped up to me and he and i understand it a lot more than the other ones i think at first and when i went into to have more and more of it you know so i think how did she become interested in standing up in front of people and reciting poetry by heart ah yes it and that actually that live on it at letting the nineteenth but my parents hired english or literature lovers and i got the gene and i love poetry and literature and i'm standing up in front of the mall is it so much an ideal that and the candidates as much radio elena make myself debt and so they are laid outside because it's not at all

you know that's funny because i was assuming that maybe you were an actor as well because you're very expressive of the state have been working on it this year especially i well what i was the shyest kid and all eight kids in our family i was the time oh very shy by nature i think bet this year been working on it with a drama troupe we have a school and then doing poetry out loud in and it's yes it's going against my nature i think but it's fun that was susan elder of wichita at the poetry out loud state finals our last competitor it's cliche mel's of shawnee mission kaisha was last year's winner of the state poetry out loud contest and competed in the two thousand ten poetry out loud national competition in washington dc scary movies i came out in his ear

today the cloud shapes are terrifying and i keep expecting some enormous black into white b movie five cups to appear at the edge of the horizon to come striding over the ocean and drag me from my kitchen to that deep cave that flickered into my young brain once that are we at the bayonets theater where i've sat helpless between multiply this popped up on candy and horror bat cave the lips are a few may know bones knowledge on and flung toward the entrance i can't smell their status as clearly as the bacon fat from breakfast or this is how it feels to lose

and that sanity and moon but what it's a vet help she would get up in the morning can actually leave the house on those days when it seems like dead in his brown uniform is cruising in his panel truck of packages to your neighborhoods i think of a friend's voice on air it's initially hi i'm not here the morning of her funeral the calls filling up the tape the mail is still arriving and i feel as afraid as i was after watching all those vampire movies when i lie awake all night big tv in my bed and able to move even to pee because the un dead while awaiting underneath it if i

so much as stuck a barefoot out there in the unprotected and crimea by the ankles and pulled me and and my parents said there was nothing they do when i was older i would know better and their debt now wait i notice that i know better for years for years many know

scary movies is california contemporary poet recited by signing mention cases next poem is the classic a psalm of life by henry wadsworth longfellow what the hearts of the young being said to the songs tommy not in one four numbers life is betting him to teach me for the soul is dead that stamp isn't things are not what they see is a real delight is earnest and the grave is not its goal test out ought to dust the terrorist was not spoken of the snow not enjoying it and that sorrow is our destined to gained all way but to act that's ej ivan bender today it is a long time is fleeting

and our hearts don't doubt engraved if to know like a muffled drums are beating the funeral marches to the gray in the world's prod field of battle and the lack of a life not like a dam for treating a cat and he wrote in that strength trust and no future how air pleasant set past to bury its date hot amish encounter or hate lives of great main all remind us we can make our lives a line and apply to leave behind its footprints when the saints of tiny footprints that perhaps another over a

lifelong remain a four lane in a shipwrecked brother seemed will take heart again so let us been beaten in doing with the heart or in egypt still achieving still pursuing learn to labor and to wait cases last poem is by topeka native gwendolyn brooks the first african american author to win the pulitzer prize brooks was also the first black woman to serve as poetry consultant to the library of congress appointed to that post at the age of sixty eight she lived in chicago until her death in the year two thousand and now case amounts of song in the front yard like window in the books pat's state in the front

yard all my life want to peek at the back where to run in and tinted and hungry we eat crows center of the rungs in the backyard now in tampa to win our good time to day they do some wonderful things they have some wonderful finding my mother's sneezes but right now they don't have to go we and at quarter to nag my mother she tells me that jack ma wants be a bad one that's eligible one account of last winter he sold out that gate but i say it's time i may start to end

it like to be a bad woman to and whether prayers stockings of night black lace and stepped down the street what painting my face that's kishore mills of shawnee mission she was declared the winner of the state poetry out loud finals for the second year so go on to washington dc to compete in the two thousand eleven poetry out loud finals later this month i caught up with kay said after poetry out loud and we talked about her final poem a song in the front yard by gwendolyn brooks i love that poem that sotomayor actually paved and i was just like that one and so analysts in iran is like that so as our way of quitting drugs she's going to be gone but she's raised a chicago

ain't she had her first poems published book of poems published when she was sixteen a belief or you yourself a poetry writer yes and what kind of poetry do you iterate usually spoken word audio last book in large and every once a while when i'm like in a bad mood all right something similar call or something but other than that he had pretty much as somebody who writes poetry when is the like reciting someone olson's poems a kind and inspires you you know try other stevens you know looking at things a different way with congratulations you've won the poetry out loud for the state of kansas congratulations bankia really appreciate it so exciting and this is the happy as i could be right now like this is the greatest accomplishment i could ever have in life it actually thank you again patient health at

shawnee mission winner of the two thousand eleven poetry out loud state final held march eleven in topeka he's an elder of wichita was named runner up poetry out loud is sponsored at the state level by the kansas arts commission i spoke with then executive director llewellyn crane just after the state finals about the importance of programs like poetry out loud and arts in general in kansas the arts poetry literature visual artist painting music dance theatre these are all intrinsically valuable to us as human beings and to allow us to connect to one another and to our community members the arts our support to tell us who we are where we came from and how we wanted to find her future so as individuals here it's important to each one of us i think people usually don't even know that their lives have been touched by the arts but everywhere they look there's designers painting in this

landscape images paintings of our sun sets and are beautiful kansas guys on our landscape and our lives are constantly and continually enraged by what we see what we experience and in the arts tell our stories but then there's the other issue of why should the arts be publicly funded and i an ever more convinced that the arts are essential for governments to support not a hundred percent because i think it's important for each community to have a share of that to participate in the support and nurturing of the arts in their own communities that government has an important role to play in saying this is who we are as americans this is who we are as kansans this is what we believe in we believe in good we believe in the highest expression that we as human beings can make and we believe in

sharing that and it is that access to the arts the access that all people will have to the arts if there's public funds put into that art and as art experiences that make a difference the wisest just people with money who can experience the arts or to people who happen to be born into families that are arts engaged that everyone needs to have the opportunity to experience and that's what happens when we find the arts in schools when you provide saturday morning programme storytelling programs puppet programs are making programs in the art center strap a state that's what happens when a program like poetry out loud which is publicly funded it's allowed to grow and we see these young women from all parts of the state from wichita to quench are participating in this program learning great poetry gaining the confidence that it takes to present themselves in front

of an audience of strangers coming to the state capital to do i am one of them has erupted at a washington dc to participate with peers from all fifty states what an exciting opportunity and one an exciting moment and that does not happen on its own that happens because governments partnering with the private sector one of the things that we know in kansas is when you invest in the arts you get a larger return so right now every campaign through their tax dollars is paying twenty nine cents for the arts' entire year for the arts to beat throughout this day twenty nine cents that it's a tiny percentage of our state budget before that twenty nine cents a tremendous return on that investment in two thousand and seven the arts generated fifty million dollars in state local revenue despite existing in communities because artists have to buy materials people who come

to see art events i'll have to pay a babysitter or put gasoline in their cargo at dinner and they are generating tax revenue that supports the state in other ways so this tiny little investment actually yields very large dividends for the entire state that's just an economic peace the pipe that says nothing about the value the arts having communities the value arts have an education the value the arts bring to communities they're trying to grow attracting retain businesses that's extraordinary and the enlightened treaties and kansas places like the line at wichita they make a large investment public funds in the arts because they get and all we're saying is we want the state to level the playing field just a little bit twenty nine cents per person what a great investment well in korean served as executive director of the kansas arts commission from two thousand six until last month we continue celebrating national poetry month with some are rich numbers by kansas poets these poets were winners

in that kansas authors club competition held last summer in the interest of full disclosure i was the judge in one of the pros divisions of the kansas others club competition that was not involved in any way in the selection of the poetry we'll hear first from christine polanski of manhattan i dont write the ocean the waves turning to foam on the beach the bird on delicate legs leaving delicate prince in front of the product the center the retreating water after he re share of the prince i don't write or the ocean or the wet sand or the bird i read of the loneliness of the moment that marks disappeared that was christine polanski manhattan kansas her next column for they will harvest leaves is followed by cicadas saying the full force tonight again christine

polanski a small bird scams the edges of the trees that you don't sing to the dance and reappears to flip as close to me as the duty amps and fear constraints it seems to know i am a stranger here with black capped head and mask of grey to the exit out of place let's have that truly exaggerates the greens at sleaze button green to silver korean and back again such quick exchange of shames ex seen on fields at this time of year when spring is same as past and weekend spent a bar having that strip this time called wheat ale sun and rain and dirt take on the task of filling out the grain which hasn't hardened yet and win reveals its

shape almost by flicking blades from green to a lighter green a play perhaps on turning week before the harvest news the clouds are shadows on the fields with less regard than win for boundaries in mainland well sundown brings a slow exchange of equalizing pounds the purchase back how many hues of grapes wheat and contain and noticed that before nor had i noticed how the trees are below about like clouds come bother people living here will harvest leans why i heart this is their

fire is seeing full force tonight hold court for man named trains anchor nice with katz not to do but scratch it eric grind down the sleepless hours exact revenge cicadas saying full force tonight harmonize like gears gritty with advice trade fortunes for pearl cast for a kinetic in height the tracy disbanding colon by the county its in like east and flour x and to make three majors more the gate as saying of course tonight harrell lonely mustard seed how it pushes through the dirt aaron branches out to celebrate not trade nord train share

not met know i cast not shoot on a branch just celebrate dan's go dance you fisherman and treasure seekers you seeds in east exuberant with life and saying no cicada saying they're saying they're full force tonight our next winners from the kansas otters club are dyin palca of over brock followed by tarmac of lawrence the turquoise turtle the turquoise turtle much more than the naive catchy used to be last prairie tornadoes that rock n roll her world she speeds through life and her fuel efficient car through a maze of prairie grasses wealth our sweet corn cows and doused the doo wop of her life filled with a violin lightning npr thunder now replaced by staccato of withered leaves the crushed underfoot and scattered in the wind her world so much older now yet she stays the same

rocking the city more than just a chair care and give her once two words never used together dragged her into the blue and cold and deep unable to grow in the country winds down from field to field she could hardly find a turquoise blue in her newfound wisdom was a true she carries the weight of the world on her back to shelter them she plants along the dusty gravel roads in her tiny car she does what she can not much dancing give her violins and pianos here for rock n roll give her to her rocking around her a tornado assisted of rocking in a chair because there isn't much time left for that there be turquoise everywhere the

faithful a patch a summer on an oak with a dog sniffing a spark and you're knitting has shrunk as they now menge and disrespect at the same time the tree doesn't mind and freeze leaves for muslims on dressing for the coming winter when snow blankets is nudity and yoko always the next spring when a dog might set the spark and you're in a dire strong again that was tom matt of lawrence winner of the wins the division at the campus office club weekend with two high q written by yvonne green of topeka their perches outside the frosty windows of spring school community in this plan chongqing tomatoes meat juice any downside of listening so i know this i can start of oxygen

susan c tomato cart i hope you've enjoyed this hour a verse in celebration of national poetry month thanks to the kansas arts commission and to the kansas arthur's club if you'd like more information about national poetry month go to daddy daddy daddy you'd that poets dot org the website of the academy of american poets and be sure to tune into katie are present sunday april twenty four for highlights from poet laureate at the recent gathering of poets laureate here in lawrence i'm j mcintyre cpr prisons is a production of kansas public radio at the university of kansas