A high school junior from Flagstaff is this year's Poetry Out Loud state champion. Sophie Weinzinger won the prestigious poetry recitation competition, advancing to the national championships in Washington, D.C. Though she didn't place in the top 3, Sophie still won, according to her poetry teacher. We hear from both of them in this week's installment of Poetry Friday.
My name is Terry Wilson. I’m a teacher at Coconino High School. Sophie’s been participating in Poetry Out Loud all three years she’s been at Coconino High School. And she has been the school-wide winner all three years as well. And this year she went to Washington, D.C. and participated in the national Poetry Out Loud contest with 51 other students. And she made it to the final nine. She didn’t place 1, 2 or 3 out of the nine, and we were all watching and rooting for her and listening. And some of the kids said, ‘Oh, Sophie! Were you disappointed?’ And with the biggest smile you’ve ever seen on her face, she said, ‘It was the greatest experience of my life. I DID win because I got to go!’ And you know why she thinks she won? She got to meet people she thinks are amazing. The other winners, the other…not even the other winners but the other reciters. She doesn’t believe she gets to know them in her life. And what she doesn’t realize is, I can’t believe I get to be her teacher! ‘Oh! You’re her teacher. You did such a good job.’ No. No I didn’t. I watched her do a good job is what happened.
Hi, my name is Sophie Weinzinger, and I’ll be reciting ‘Tarantulas on the Lifebuoy’ by Thomas Lux. I love this poem because it’s not daunting at all. I think when we think about poetry we think of Old English and Shakespeare. But I love this poem because it’s so simple in the words it uses, but the message is so clear that every life counts.
Tarantulas on the LIfebuoy, by Thomas Lux
For some semitropical reason
when the rains fall
relentlessly they fall
into swimming pools, these otherwise
bright and scary
arachnids. They can swim
a little, but not for long.
and they can't climb the ladder out.
They usually drown - but
if you want their favor,
if you believe there is justice,
a reward for not loving
the death of ugly
and even dangerous (the eel, hog snake,
rats) creatures, if
you believe these things, then
you would leave a lifebuoy
or two in your swimming pool at night.
And in the morning
you would haul ashore
the huddled, hairy survivors
and escort them
back to the bush, and know,
be assured that at least these saved,
as individuals, would not turn up
again someday
in your hat, drawer,
or the tangled underworld
of your socks, and that even -
when your belief in justice
merges with your belief in dreams -
they may tell the others
in a sign language
four times as subtle
and complicated as man's
that you are good,
that you love them,
that you would save them again.