BY KAREN BOSSICK
A Sun Valley Community School student has used his enthusiasm for drama and the gift of gab to take second place in a statewide poetry contest.
Cassius Klingenfuss took second place in the Idaho State finals of Poetry Out Loud, a national poetry recitation contest that encourages high school students to be exposed to great poetry through memorization and performance.
“I was one of the top three contestants out of the 1,737 Idaho students that took part initially,” said Klingenfuss. “It was super challenging and I was not sure how it was going to go because all the contestants were super good. But reciting poetry is kind of like acting. And I write a lot of poetry—I have since my freshman year when I did it for honors credit in English.”
The event was started by the National Endowment for the Arts and run in Idaho by Arts Idaho, said Klingenfuss.
“It was super fun and we got a chance to look at the art around Garden City, which is a super vibrant area of Idaho. We also got to talk to a poet, which was super cool.”
The challenge is for students to read and interpret a broad range of poems from classical to contemporary that had been selected for Poetry Out loud. They then chose one to memorize and perform in a contest at their school or library.
The winner from each of those contests was invited to the state finals at the Red Lion Riverside ballroom in Boise where Klingenfuss recited two more poems. The Idaho champion went to Washington, D.C., to compete in the National Final for prizes totaling $50,000 in cash awards and school stipends.
Klingenfuss came in second out of 12 finalists in a contest covered by Idaho Public Television. He won a $100 cash prize, along with $200 for Sun Valley Community School to purchase poetry materials.
“It was an honor to be there alongside Cassius’ family!” said Michelle DeLateur, the media arts teacher at Sun Valley Community School. “It was bound to be memorable, considering the amazing poems, dramatic recitations, all the cameras and way WAY too many hotel cookies.”
The catalog of poems included Kamilah Aisha Moon’s “1st Vote,” Naomi Shihab Nye’s “300 Goats.” Ted Kooser’s “Abandoned Farmhouse” and Kimberly Blaeser’s “About Standing (in Kinship),” To read them and others, go to https://www.poetryoutloud.org/.
Klingenfuss recited Robert Browning’s “Confessions,” Judith Ortiz Cofer’s “Eagles” and Gerard Manley Hopkins’ “As Kingfishers Catch Fire.”
“Poetry, I think for me, teaches language fluency. I’ve noticed for me and others we sometimes struggle to describe how we’re feeling. With poetry I’m able to describe much more eloquently what is going on in my mind and my heart,” said Klingenfuss.
Cassius Klingenfuss wrote the following poem--“That ain’t No Culture”--at 2 a.m. in the morning.
“It was kind of a cool piece to work on,” Klingenfuss said. “It's one of those rare poems of mine that was born with its hair and everything; I didn't really feel the need to go back and flesh it out or anything. I could argue that some long-ago poet was speaking through me, but I really think it has to do with where it was blooming from: a feeling. Whenever I try to start a poem with an idea or thought it kind of goes nowhere—hits a wall at about five lines in.
“I think that just goes to show the power of emotion. I also think that's exactly what the Poetry Out Loud competition is trying to do: Nourish and expand the power of a poem and its more interesting emotional tendencies.”
That ain’t No Culture
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“Is that serendipity? Goddamn.”
Some hook, some line, some sinker
must have said as he placed
his stark hands onto the wings
of your irises. And what he might
have just bereaved your scleras of,
had he not thought there was more
for them, in that nomadic kind-of-way;
That I’m giving this rock a name
kind-of-way. All because he wanted
you to feel something for the rock—
which he affectionately named
Oktoberfest, and because he thought
the Berlin Wall stood in an unlike
lexicographic way. The Earth—an
also named rock perhaps, tossing
and turning counter-clock-wise to spend
just one last eclipse tied,
wrapped up in conversation with
you. And, yes, it was just that purely
innocent, even without Angels
screaming from his heart; the Divinity
of which melted in his chest and evaporated
up into your tavern inside of a tavern.
Now, he thought of the Harlem Renaissance
poetry that must’ve been recited in that
inner-most tavern. Then, he thought maybe you
were those shuttering, excavatum Angels.”