This year, the annual Poetry Out Loud competition took place on January 30, where students around Bolles volunteered to perform two poems in front of a panel of English faculty judges and their peers. 

Schools from every state around the nation have the opportunity to participate in Poetry Out Loud, where students perform and compete to proceed to the state and national levels. English and Creative Writing teacher Mrs. Curran helps organize the competition each year. 

“We thought it would be really enjoyable for students who don’t necessarily read poetry and don’t have any other opportunities to showcase their theatrical skills,” Curran said. 

Performances are scored based on physical presence, voice and articulation, interpretation, evidence of understanding, and overall performance. Each participant receives an overall score, and the highest scoring performer proceeds to the next level. This year, Cyrus Vaghefi ‘26 won first place, Mallie Brackin ‘28 earned second, and Ana LaRosa ‘28 won third. 

Vaghefi chose to perform William Butler Yeat’s “When You Are Old” and Ha Jin’s “Ways of Talking” because they are simple to memorize yet deep in meaning. Vaghefi connects to “When You Are Old” because it reminds him of his grandmother, who had Alzheimer’s. 

“‘Ways of Talking’ is personal to me because it is a story of an immigrant,” Vaghefi said. “My family immigrated from Iran, so I know how that experience is, and thought it was really interesting to see how it was written in poetry.” 

Winning first place qualifies Vaghefi for the state competition at the University of South Florida on March 15, where he will perform his previous two poems plus an additional pre-20th century poem. 

Around 35 schools attend the state competition, and students are able to make connections with writers and other students from all around Florida. “It’s a great, enriching experience,” Curran said. She has personally attended many state competitions and has connected with many writers there, one of whom she invited to Bolles for a poetry workshop. 

This will be Vaghefi’s third year advancing to states, and he especially enjoys watching others perform while he is there. “When you watch other people deliver their poems, you get to see another really powerful delivery, and sometimes it can blow you out of the water,” he said.

Even though public speaking comes naturally to him, Vaghefi still gets nervous before he performs. “I try to meditate before I go out because it allows me to calm myself, and then I feel more comfortable and confident to speak,” he said. 

During Vaghefi’s first year at states, he was “a little nervous and taken aback, honestly, because there were a lot of people there.” However, he looks back on it as “really cool because you get to meet so many amazing people who are also really good speakers and you can stay in contact with them for a long time.” 

This year, Vaghefi hopes to win and proceed to the national competition in Washington D.C.. 

“It’s always a huge honor for me to get to represent Bolles at a state or national level,” he said. “I’m really striving to win.”

There are also prizes for winning the competitions, going up to $20,000 for winning the national competition in D.C.. Last year’s recipient was a student at Douglas Anderson, a local high school in Jacksonville.  

Brackin decided to enter the Poetry Out Loud competition because she discovered her love for performing during an alternate assessment. “For our English alternate assessment this year, we had to recite a poem. And it really sparked a passion,” she said. “I thought it was fun and enjoyable to bring the poem to life.” 

Brackin performed “We Wear the Mask,” by Paul Laurence Dunbar, for her alternative assessment and again at the competition. She chose this poem because although it was originally written about discrimination in the post-Civil War years, she appreciates its application to modern issues. 

“It’s very real in the sense that in our society, we do wear the mask every day,” she said. Her second poem, “Genetics,” by Jacqueline Woodson, also follows themes of “identity, wearing a mask, and not showing your true feelings.” 

While performing, Brackin was not at all nervous because the attending audience was more intimate. “I was very confident going into it…It was fun to see everybody else perform,” she said. 

Brackin focused on emphasizing each stanza in her performance. “You don’t want to be doing hand gestures every single line because that takes away from the words and the meaning of the poem. I try to focus on something in each stanza that stands out and I can lighten up.”

Brackin intends on competing in Poetry Out Loud again next year and hopes to proceed to states. She believes that already having experience at states works to Vaghefi’s advantage because “He knows what works and what the judges like. His voice is very impactful, and he is a great narrator.” 

LaRosa’s first performance was “After the Winter,” by Claude Mckay. “It’s about hardships, times of struggle, and coming out the other side,” LaRosa said. She chose to perform Sara Teasdale’s “After Love” second because she thought it went well with her first. 

“I focused on trying to make the poem sound like how they felt, so very happy and hopeful,” she said. 

LaRosa enjoyed performing because it allowed her to learn more about poetry. “You have to take a deeper dive and think about what it means to express it on stage.”

Poetry Out Loud is a long-standing tradition at Bolles that many enjoy either participating in or watching. “Every year we debate if we have time to put on a competition because students are so busy and stressed,” Curran said. “But every year, there’s always a handful of students who want to do it. That makes it worth it. It’s worth the energy, the time, and the effort to put it together.”