Poetry Out Loud offers Olympia High School students a place to express themselves creatively. OHS has a competitive poetry program, but it is much more than that. Participating students look to deeply express themselves to people who understand their art.
Sophomore Claire Byers, a first-time participant, became enamored with poetry one year and a half ago and it was her first time reciting to an audience. “I will definitely do it again,” she said passionately. For Byers, poetry is fun, but more than that, it acts as a therapeutic outlet. “Poetry for me is a way to vent, to get rid of emotional baggage and heal the soul,” Byers said.
Byers looks at poetry more as a spiritual method of self-care rather than just as a fun activity. Her point being bottled-up emotions have negative consequences and people with any sort of emotional baggage should consider doing poetry. She encourages others to join the program. “It helped me so I’m sure it can help others,” she mentioned.
Grace Borden, a veteran participant and a senior, sees poetry as a flexible means of expression and recognizes how it brings solace to the hectic mind of a teenager. She elaborated on how some people show up and share their poems with no intention to compete, but end up wanting to compete along the way.
In respect to how much of a safe place it is, and if it was a place completely free of judgment, Borden gave a realistic but comforting answer. “Teenagers are always judgemental, no place is free of that. But this place is great as far as safe places go and everyone is offered the same level of encouragement no matter what,” Borden shared.
The competitive nature of Poetry Out Loud adds excitement to the matter. Borden explains that participants are judged using a specific rubric, with the top performer advancing to district-level competitions. Olympia High School has won district championships and competed in state championships for the last three years. Winning twice with Matthew Valentine (2023) and Blaze Rowan (2024), both of whom went on to compete at nationals.
Sophomore Max Ehret won this competition in his second year competing at OHS. Ehret brilliantly recited “Siblings” by Patricia Smith and “Pity the Beautiful” by Dana Foja, ultimately earning himself the spot to represent the school. Ehret will compete for the district championship and hopefully achieve similar success to past years.
