- Hello, everyone.

My name is David Toland and I'm honored to serve as Governor Laura Kelly's Lieutenant Governor for the state of Kansas.

The program you're about to watch features the bright young stars of our state performing at this year's Poetry Out Loud state finals in Topeka.

We're excited to share these poetry readings with all of you, the people of Kansas, and we're pleased that the Kansas Creative Arts Industries Commission is here to partner with Poetry Out Loud and to support a wide variety of arts and cultural development programs in communities across Kansas.

The arts enrich our communities in so many ways.

They help us tell our story, who we are, where we've been, and who we want to be.

To get the program started, it's now my pleasure to turn it over to Kansas' Poet Laureate Huascar Medina.

We hope you enjoy Poetry Out Loud.

(upbeat music) Ben and Judy Coates proudly support KTWU and arts education.

(electronic music) - Welcome to the 2022 Kansas Poetry Out Loud recitation contest.

I'm your host, Huascar Medina, the current Poet Laureate of the state of Kansas.

And I am so grateful that we are able to gather in the name of poetry.

Speaking of gratitude, I wanna take this moment and thank our sponsors, the Kansas Creative Arts Industries Commission, the Poetry Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Without them, none of this would be possible.

Poetry Out Loud is a national arts education program that encourages the nation's youth to learn about great poetry through memorization and performance.

Reciting great poetry connects us to an ageless art form, to the timelessness of great poets, to abstract ideas and higher critical thinking, and ultimately, to deeper life experiences.

Here to explain how the event unfolded across the state this year is Peter Jasso, director of the Kansas Creative Arts Industries Commission and state Poetry Out Loud coordinator, Cheryl Germann.

- Thanks, Huascar.

In 2006, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Poetry Foundation partnered with state arts agencies across the country to inaugurate Poetry Out Loud, a national recitation contest.

The Creative Arts Industries Commission is proud to provide the Poetry Out Loud program to high school students statewide, and is excited to partner with KTWU for the first time to bring poetry into the living rooms across Kansas and celebrate the hard work and long road that these students took to get here today.

- Poetry Out Loud begins with teachers and students in classrooms and schools across the state.

Each school is able to send one representative to their area's regional competition.

The number of competitors at each of the four regional competitions determines how many advanced to today's state finals.

And today, one Kansas student will become the Kansas Poetry Out Loud champion and advance to the national finals.

Thank you to Kansas regional coordinators, Stacy Chestnut, Cynthia Roth, Kayla Pruitt, and Cody Fenwick for your work in bringing this program to all parts of the state.

- It is now my pleasure to introduce our panel of distinguished judges.

Megan Kaminiski is a poet and essayist and the author of three books of poetry, "Gentlewomen," Noemi press, 2020, "Deep City," and "Desiring Map."

"Prairie Divination," her forthcoming collection of essays and oracle deck with artist L. Ann Wheeler, turns to the plants, animals and geological features of the prairie as guides for living in good relation each other, and to realigning thinking towards kinship, community and interdependence.

She is an Associate Professor in English at the University of Kansas and leads poetry and nature walks at nonprofits throughout the state through Humanities Kansas.

A seventh generation Kansan, Erik McHenry teaches English at Washburn University and was the Poet Laureate of Kansas from 2015 to 2017.

His books of poetry include "Potscrubber Lullabies," which won the Kate Tufts Discovery Award, and "Odd Evening," a finalist for the Poet's Prize.

His poems have appeared in Threepenny Review, the New Republic, the Yale Review, the Times Literary Supplement and Poetry Northwest, from whom he received a Theodore Roethke prize.

He also writes essays and criticism for the New York Times, the American Scholar, the Boston Globe, and other publications.

Ronda Miller is a life coach, poet, and former state president of Kansas Authors Club, 2018 through 2019.

Miller's five books of poetry include "Going Home," "Poems from My Life," "MoonStain," "WaterSigns," "Winds of Time," and "I Love the Child."

Miller teaches the importance of voice, no matter how you dance, in partnership with the Johnson County Library, College of Trades, and Johnson County Department of Corrections.

Mercedes Lucero, the author of "Stereometry," the winner of the Langston Hughes Creative Writing Award for poetry and a finalist for the Sandy Crimmins National Prize for Poetry.

Her work has been featured on the project on the history of black writing and published in places like CutBank, New Orleans Review, New Ohio Review, Puerto del Sol, 14 Hills, Paper Darts, the Chicago Tribune's Printers World Journal, The Pinch and Heavy Feather Review, among others.

Her poem, "Holy Celluloid Poetic," most recently received first runner-up in the New Letters Patricia Cleary Miller Award for Poetry.

Here's how the contest works.

Students have each selected three poems from the "Poetry Out Loud Anthology."

Within their selections, they must include a poem that was written before the 20th century and a poem that is 25 lines or fewer.

In each round, students will be called in a randomly-determined order to recite one of the three poems he or she has prepared.

Before each recitation, the student should identify the title of the poem and the author only.

After the student finishes, the judges, without conferring, will take a moment to individually mark their evaluation sheets.

The evaluation sheets will be collected and quickly verified.

The next student will then be called onto the stage to recite their poem.

During each round of the contest, the judges will assess each recitation on these criteria: physical presence and posture, voice projection and articulation, appropriateness of dramatization, evidence of understanding, and overall performance.

Following the second round, the three students receiving the highest total score in the first two rounds will be the finalists competing in round three.

After round three presentations, final scores will be tabulated.

The student with the highest total score following round three will win the Kansas Poetry Out Loud competition.

Let's get started.

Introducing our first contestant, Jaden Huehl.

- "Broken Promises" by David Kirby.

"I have met them in dark alleys, limping and one-armed.

I've seen them playing cards under a single light bulb and tried to join in, but they refuse me rudely, knowing I would only let them win.

I've seen them in the foyers of theaters coming back late from the interval, long after the others have taken their seats, and in deserted shopping malls late at night, peering at things they can never buy.

And I have found them wandering in a wood where I too have wandered.

This morning, I caught one.

Small and stupid, too slow to get away.

It was only a promise I had made to myself once and then forgot, but it screamed and kicked at me and ran to join the others who looked at me with reproach in their long, sad faces.

When I drew near them, they scurried away.

Even though they will sleep in my yard tonight, I hate them for them for their ingratitude.

I, who have kept countless promises as dead now as Shakespeare's children.

You bastards, I scream.

You have to love me.

I gave you life."

(audience applauds) - Our second contestant is Madeline Fritz.

- "Advice From Rock Creek Park" by Stephanie Burt.

(breathes deeply) "What will survive us has already begun.

Oak galls, two termites, curious, self-perpetuating bodies letting the light through the gaps.

They lay out their allegiances under the roots of an overturned tree.

Almost always better to build than to wreck.

You can build in a wreck under the roots of an overturned tree.

Consider the martin that hefts herself over traffic cones.

Consider her shadow, misaligned over parking lot cement, Saran wrap scrap in her beak.

Nothing lasts forever.

Not even the future we want.

The president has never owned the rain."

(audience applauds) - Our next contestant is Nova Hagerman.

- "April Midnight" by Arthur Symons.

"Side by side, through the streets at midnight, roaming together through the tumultuous night of London and the miraculous April weather, roaming together under the gaslight, days work over.

How the spring calls to us here in the city, calls to the heart from the heart of a lover.

Cool, the wind blows fresh in our faces, cleansing, entrancing, after the heat and the fumes and the footlights where you dance and I watch you dancing.

Good it is to be here together.

Good to be roaming.

Even in London, even at midnight.

Lover-like in a lover's gloaming.

You, the dancer and I, the dreamer, children together, wandering lost in the night of London in the miraculous April weather."

(audience applauds) - Our next contestant is John Gilmore.

- "The Charge of the Light Brigade" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson.

"Half a league, half a league, half a league onward, all in the valley of death rode the six hundred.

'Forward the Light Brigade!

'Charge for the guns!'

he said.

Into the valley of death rode the six hundred.

'Forward the light brigade!'

Was there a man dismayed?

Not though the soldier knew someone had blundered.

Theirs not to make reply, theirs not to reason why, theirs but to do and die.

Into the valley of death rode the six hundred.

Cannon to right of them, cannon to left of them, cannon in front of them volleyed and thundered, stormed at with shot and shell, boldly, they rode and well into the jaws of death, into the mouth of hell rode the six hundred.

Flashed all their sabers bare, flashed as they turned in air, sabering the gunners there.

Charging an army, while all the world wondered.

Plunged in the battery-smoke, right through the line they broke, Cossack and Russian reeled from saber stroke, shattered and sundered.

Then they rode back, but not, not the six hundred.

Cannon to right of them, cannon to left of them, cannon behind them volleyed and thundered, stormed at with shots and shell while horse and hero fell.

They that had fought so well came through the jaws of death, back from the mouth of hell.

All that was left of them, left of six hundred.

When can their glory fade?

O the wild charge they made!

All the world wondered.

Honor the charge they made!

Honor the Light Brigade!

Noble six hundred!"

(audience applauds) - Our next contestant is Allie Cloyd.

- "Say This" by Lucia Perillo.

"I live a small life, barely bigger than a speck, barely more than a blip on the radar sweep though it is not nothing.

As the garter snake climbs the rock rose shrub and the squirrel creeps on bramble thorns.

Not nothing to the crows who heckle from the crowns of the last light's trees, winter stripped of green except for the boughs that ivy wins each hour 'round.

See, the world is busy and the world is quick, barely time for a spider to suck the juice from a hawk moth's head so it can use the moth as a spindle that it wraps in fiber.

While the moth constricts, until it's thin as a stick you might think was nothing, a random bit caught in a web coming loose from the window frame in wind."

(audience applauds) (upbeat music) - [Huascar] While we prepare for round two, let's take a moment to meet some of our contestants.

- I'm Allie Cloyd.

I am a sophomore at Manhattan High School.

This is my first time in Poetry Out Loud.

It's been fun so far.

It's very new, but it's been a good experience.

- My name is Nova Hagerman.

I'm a Junior at Wichita East High School, and I'm from Wichita, Kansas.

It's been very welcoming.

Everybody who's working for Poetry Out Loud has been very passionate about it.

I can see it in their eyes.

I'm just really excited to perform today.

(upbeat music) - So my first poem is "Say This" by Lucia Perillo.

And then the next one is "Emily Dickinson at the Poetry Slam" by Dan Vera.

And I really enjoy both of those poems, especially "Emily Dickinson at the Poetry Slam."

They're fun to recite and perform, and it's just a new sort of fun challenge.

- For my first poem, I chose "April Midnight" by Arthur Symons because it was very romantic and dreamy, and I lean towards poetry like that.

The second poem was "From Blossoms" by Li-Young Lee and I was just clicking the random button on the website and that one popped up and I immediately fell in love.

I love that poem.

And the last one, I had two weeks to choose and memorize.

I chose "In" by Andrew Hudgins.

There was a line in that poem talking about voice and it just really spoke to me, and I felt like I was called to do it for today.

(upbeat music) - I've always enjoyed poetry and spoken word, and I enjoy it as part of like my forensics pieces, and it's always especially poems with like a deeper meaning have always been fun for me.

- When I was younger, I always thought that I wanted to write longer stories, but sophomore year, we did a poetry unit in my creative writing class, and I just loved how just small little phrases, just with pretty words, just matched up together and made this huge image, this idea, and just called to me more.

(upbeat music) - Yeah, I think there's something for everyone in poetry.

Poetry can describe a lot of emotions or how you're feeling or a lot of maybe change that you want to have made.

There's just a lot of options and different styles of poetry, and there really is something for everyone.

- (sighs) I feel like people do not take poetry seriously, when they really should, because it's an amazing way to express yourself.

It's beautiful.

It's passionate.

And if you have any inkling that's telling you, that it calls out to you or you want to be poetic, do it.

I feel like so many people are afraid to do it, and you just gotta be the person who isn't.

(upbeat music) - We will now begin the recitations for round two.

Our first contestant is Jaden Huehl.

- "The Spirit is Too Blunt an Instrument" by Anne Stevenson.

"The spirit is too blunt an instrument to have made this baby.

Nothing so unskillful as human passions could have managed the intricate, exacting particulars, the tiny blind bones with their manipulating tendons, the knee and the knuckle bones, the resilient, fine meshing of ganglia and vertebrae, the chain of the difficult spine.

Observe the distinct eyelashes and sharp crescent fingernails, the shell-like complexity of the ear with its firm involutions concentric in miniature to minute ossicles .

Imagine the infinitesimal capillaries, the flawless connections of the lungs, the invisible neurofilaments through which the completed body already answers to the brain.

The name any passion or sentiment possessed of the simplest accuracy.

No, no desire or affection could have done with practice what habit has done perfectly, indifferently through the body's ignorant precision.

It is left to the vagaries of the mind to invent love and despair and anxiety and their pain."

(audience applauds) - Our next contestant is Madeline Fritz.

- "Hope is the Thing with Feathers" by Emily Dickinson.

(breathes deeply) "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 in the gale is heard, and sore must be the storm that could abash the little bird that kept so many warm.

I've heard it in the chillest land and on the strangest sea, yet never in extremity it asked a crumb of me."

(audience applauds) - Our next contestant is Nova Hagerman.

- "From Blossoms" by Li-Young Lee "From blossoms comes this brown paper bag of peaches we bought from the boy at the bend in the road where we turn towards signs painted 'Peaches.'

From laden boughs, from hands, from sweet fellowship in the bins comes nectar at the roadside.

Succulent peaches we devour, dusty skin and all, comes a familiar dust of summer.

Dust we eat.

Oh, to take what we love inside to carry within us an orchard.

To eat not only the skin, but the shade.

Not only the sugar, but the days to hold the fruit in our hands, adore it, then bite into the round jubilance of peach.

There are days we live, as of death were nowhere in the background.

From joy to joy to joy from wing to wing, from blossom to blossom to impossible blossom, to sweet, impossible blossom."

(audience applauds) - Our next contestant is John Gilmore.

- "Invisible Children" by Mariana Llanos.

"Invisible children fall through the cracks of the system, like Alice and the rabbit hole.

But these children won't find an eat me cake or a drink me bottle.

They won't wake up on the lap of a loving sister.

They'll open their eyes on the monster called negligence, who will poke them with its sharp teeth and bait them with its heartless laughter, like a wild thing in a wild rumpus.

But the children won't awake to the smell of a warm supper, nor will they find a purple crown to draw an escape door or a window.

But instead, they'll make a mirror of a murky puddle on the city street which won't tell them they're beautiful, but it'll show their scars, as invisible to others as these children are."

(audience applauds) - Our next contestant is Allie Cloyd.

- "Emily Dickinson at the Poetry Slam" by Dan Vera.

"I will tell you why she rarely ventured from her house.

It happened like this.

One day she took the train to Boston, made her way to the darkened room, put her name down in cursive script, and waited her turn.

When they read her name aloud, she made her way to the stage, straightened the papers in her hands, pages and envelopes, the backs of grocery bills.

She closed her eyes for a minute, (inhales) took a breath, and began.

From her mouth, perfect words exploded.

Intact formulas of light and darkness, she dared to rhyme with words like cochineal and describe the skies like diadem.

Obscurely worded incantations filled the room with an alchemy that made the very molecules quake.

The solitary words she handled in her upstairs room with keen precision came rumbling out to make the electric lights flicker.

40 members of the audience were treated for hypertension.

20-year-old dark-haired beauties found their heads had turned a Moses white.

Her second poem erased the memory of every cell phone in the nightclub.

And by the fourth line of the sixth verse, the grandmother in the upstairs apartment had been cured of her rheumatism.

The papers reported the power outages, the area hospitals taxed their emergency generators and sirens were heard to wail through the night.

Quietly, she made her way to the exit, walked to the terminal and rode back to Amherst.

She never left her room again and never read such syllables aloud."

(audience applauds) (upbeat music) - [Huascar] While the judges compile the scores from the first two rounds, let's meet the rest of our contestants.

(upbeat music) - I am Madeline Fritz, I go by Maddie.

I am from Blue Valley High School.

I am a senior now, so college.

And I am from Overland Park, Kansas.

Yes, this is my first time competing, and it's been really fun.

I've done a lot of practicing with coaches and stuff, so I'm very excited for today.

- My name is John Gilmore.

I am from Girard, I go to Girard High School.

I am a senior at Girard High School this year.

This is my first time competing at this level in Poetry Out Loud.

I've had an amazing experience.

A lot of people who I've met along the way who are very passionate about poetry and it's good to see that.

- So my name is Jaden Huehl.

I go Tipton Catholic High School.

I live outside of Silvan Grove on a farm, and I'm a junior this year.

Yes, it is my very first time competing in Poetry Out Loud.

This is the first time I was ever introduced to it being that I went to two other schools.

My freshman and sophomore year of high school, it wasn't really offered or even talked about, and so I was really excited to get involved.

I loved doing speech, forensics, debate, all that type of stuff.

So I've loved it so far and I can't wait to do it in the future.

(upbeat music) - All of my poems actually have kind of a theme, which is like hope and deference.

So my first poem, "Advice From Rock Creek Park," is kind of this warning about how our society can pollute the earth and how we don't want that, and the wildlife is struggling.

But they are still gonna be here when we are not.

- I chose the poem "Invisible Children," that's one of the poems I chose by, pardon me if I butcher her name, but Mariana Llanos, and I love the poem and how it speaks about the kids that are around the United States, who are in like shallow and slumped places, and I like that, the theme of the poem really much, it speaks to me.

- So I've chosen three different poems.

The first one is "Broken Promises" by David Kirby.

When I first read this poem, it really resonated with me, 'cause I think it's a poem that you can really relate to on a very personal and deep level, 'cause we all have those promises that we've made to ourselves and they come up and they haunt you.

And I think that that's what this poem is really about, and trying to like explain that feeling of just your failures and how that affects you.

The second one is "The Spirit is Too Blunt an Instrument," and it's just talking about how amazing our bodies are and how amazing making a baby is, and that process.

And it just really spoke to me 'cause when you look at a baby, you just think of this perfect, precious thing.

It's kind of just appreciating that wonder and that awe that you really think of.

And then the final, last poem is "On Monsieur's Departure" by Queen Elizabeth the First, and for this one, she's very torn, and I feel like I liked the back and forth in the poem.

I liked how she was expressing her feelings.

And I feel like that's a feeling that a lot of people have, whether it be, like in her case of love, or over something else, it's just that expression of being torn, and I just like that relatability.

(upbeat music) - I think poetry is very important because it just is such a great way to express yourself in interpreting the world around you and interpreting people.

And I think it's just, it's so fun to be able to put together these verses and words that just kind of flow off the page, and that's also why I think I do like reciting poetry so much.

It's just because that feeling that you get when you're just thinking about what these words mean and the impact that they have.

- I like poetry because it's almost like seeing into the inner souls of people.

People like to confess what they feel, what they think, and these emotions that they can't normally confess to others.

And that's just cool to see because maybe I'm not alone in the things I feel.

- So I am definitely someone who English class is my favorite class.

And so I love looking at deeper meanings and I think that's the beauty of a good poem, is when you read it through the first time, you're like, that's good.

And the 15th time, you're like that's good.

And I love how poetry, each person takes something different out of it.

I can read the same poem that you read and we're both gonna feel different emotions, but it's still that author conveying that emotion to you.

And I just think it's a very beautiful process.

(upbeat music) - I have.

I find poetry is just a fun pastime to look at an object and just kind of try to figure it out through rhyming verse.

I actually composed a little homemade book that my mom printed for our family for Christmas one year.

So I do have an unofficial little book out of poems out there.

- I have not written any poetry on my own.

We have, I guess, you can say haikus, I've written those and those are challenging to convey messages, but I like the style of haikus, though.

- I don't really write poetry in the sense of maybe anyone else seeing it.

But I do think a sense that I think everyone writes their own poetry in their own way, if you ever journal or anything, 'cause the beauty about poetry is it can be yours.

It's not a strict rubric.

And I think if you really think about it, everyone's written poetry, and so anytime you're journaling, any time you're writing down your thoughts, that is your poetry.

So in a way, yes, and in a way, no.

(upbeat music) - Absolutely.

I would say just start thinking about things in your life and things that you would like other people to know.

So you can just start writing down random ideas and just expressing your thoughts.

It's not meant to be this stuffy, constricted, whatever, type of poetry.

It's just like free verse poetry.

Or I personally like rhyming schemes a whole lot.

Just do it for fun.

- I would say that it's a great release for everyday life.

It's fun.

It's creative.

And there are many great poets.

There's many great poems and it is for the average person.

I mean, it might have to take a little digging, but the themes and the ideas behind poetry can be very critical in a writer's life.

- Well, one thing, this is what I say about reading as well, is I think everybody likes to read, they just haven't found what they like to read yet.

And so I would say the very same thing about poetry.

A lot of people shy away 'cause they had their Shakespearean unit or whatever it was in high school (laughs) and then they shied away 'cause that wasn't necessarily their type of poetry, but there is poetry for everyone, like I kind of talked about earlier.

There is difference in poems and everything.

That's the beauty of it.

It's different, it's to each individual.

So I would encourage them to find a poet that really represents them and how they feel, and that's how they really get into it.

(upbeat music) - Based on the scores from rounds one and two, the top three contestants advanced to round three will be the following students, Madeline Fritz, (audience applauds) Nova Hagerman, Allie Cloyd.

We will now begin the final round.

Our first contestant is Allie Cloyd.

- "The Coming Woman" by Mary Weston Fordham, "Just look, 'tis quarter past six, love, and not even the fires are caught.

Well, you know, I must be at the office, but as usual, the breakfast will be late.

Now, hurry and wake up the children and dress them as fast as you can.

Poor dearies, I know they'll be tardy.

Dear me, what a slow pokey man.

Have the tenderloin boiled nice and juicy.

Have the toast brown and buttered all right.

And be sure you settle the coffee.

Be sure that the silver is bright.

When ready, just run up and call me, at eight, to the office, I go lest poverty grim should overtake us.

'tis bread and butter, you know.

The bottom from stocks may fall out.

My bonds may get below par.

Then surely, I seldom could spare you a nickel to buy a cigar.

Already, now while I am eating, just bring up my wheel to the door.

Then wash up the dishes, and mind now, have dinner promptly at four, for tonight is our women's convention, and I am to speak first, you know.

The men veto us in private, but in public they shout, that's so.

So bye-bye.

In case of a rap, love, before opening the door, you must look.

Oh, how could a civilized women exist without a man cook?"

(audience applauds) - Our next contestant is Madeline Fritz.

- "There are Birds Here" by Jamaal May.

For Detroit.

"There are birds here.

So many birds here, is what I was trying to say.

When they said those birds were metaphors for what is trapped between buildings and buildings.

No, the birds are here to root around for bread, the girl's hands tear and toss like confetti.

No, I don't mean the bread is torn like cotton.

I said confetti, and no, not the confetti a tank can make of a building.

I mean the confetti a boy can't stop smiling about.

And no, his smile isn't much like a skeleton at all.

And no, his neighborhood is not like a war zone.

I am trying to say his neighborhood is as tattered and feathered as anything else, as shadow pierced by sun and light parted by shadow dance as anything else.

But they won't stop saying how lovely the ruins, how ruined the lovely children must be in that birdless city."

(audience applauds) - Our final contestant is Nova Hagerman.

- "In" by Andrew Hudgins.

"When we first heard, from blocks away, the fog truck's blustery roar, we dropped our toys, leapt from our meals and scrambled out the door into an evening briefly fuzzy we yearned to be transformed.

Translated past confining flesh to disembodied spirit we swarmed, in thick smoke taking human form before we blurred, turned vague, and then invisible in temporary heaven.

Freed of bodies by the fog, we laughed, we sang, we shouted.

We were our voices.

Nothing else.

Voice was all we wanted.

The white clouds tumbled down our streets, pursued by spellbound children who chased the most distorting clouds, ecstatic in the poison."

(audience applauds) (upbeat music) - [Huascar] This concludes round three of our competition.

Coming up next, we'll announce the winner of the 2022 Kansas Poetry Out Loud competition.

But first let's hear from our judges as they recite some of their favorite poems.

(upbeat music) (audience applauds) - I am going to read a poem and it's one of my own poems and I'm a little embarrassed to say I have not memorized it.

But yeah, hopefully, you can forgive me.

"Under Tree Canopy."

By oakleaf hydrangea, sipping creek side, watching fat bumblebees drunk and stumbling.

In shade, in shelter, our smallness grows into something strong, no longer afraid to take up space or yield to powdery blossom.

Peonies, dogwood, and shining blue star, gentle teachers of sweetness, of stopping to breathe and soft touch.

Maybe it's true that we are all alone together, able to imagine a variety of sadnesses other than our own, and in that, seeing our chance to open, to face the sun.

Young robins chatter incessant and willow leaves curl waxy green and fingers providing company and counsel.

How to fall over again and again, and keep going.

How easy to linger in the wayside, sit by the water and allow each verdant brush to transform seed into wily seedling, bud to pink flower.

How to realize each expectant whisper in our own heart?"

Thank you.

(audience applauds) - I am a farm girl from just west of the Arikaree Breaks, so this is a poem called "MoonStain," which is the title poem from my book, "MoonStain."

"Barn door's pushed shut in indication something worth investigating was within.

I tried with all my strength to open, close again, new birth and pungent urgency led me to the stillborn calf, quite warm.

I nestled in the hay beside it, placed my arms around its neck.

I knew what death was.

Had heard whispers of my mother's not long before, and I could hear the mother cow's loud bawling from outside the back barn door.

I felt the spirit of the calf lift, swirl around me, disappear.

It grew cold.

I felt damp fear.

I sat in the caliginous stall until my sister came, took my hand, ran with me past my grandmother's blood moonlit garden of hollyhocks, iris, rhubarb, strawberries.

Past the spot where a rattler soaked up water from a sprinkler one August day.

Past the rotted elm, where winged fire ants swarmed in balls until they tumbled to the ground.

We opened the rusted screen door and tiptoed to bed where I lay crying because it felt so wondrous, because it felt so good until the moon stain no longer spread across the floor."

Thank you.

(audience applauds) - So my name is Huascar Medina.

This poem is about when I moved to Kansas and missed San Antonio, where I was from before and it's called "Surrogate City."

"Mama, etsoy bien.

Mother KC has adopted me.

She, too, wears iron garments of concrete and glass.

Winks at me to cross the streets.

Reminds me I am cared for through sirens in the air.

She hums a highway lullaby of old Paseo Puente, so I may pass the nights, skylines don't resemble mi vieja san ciudad in peace.

She embraces your son, the son, el sol, my soul.

Mother KC has been good to me."

Thank you.

(audience applauds) (upbeat music) As the 2022 Kansas Poetry Out Loud champion, the state champion will receive $200 and the opportunity to compete in the national Poetry Out Loud contest.

This student's school also receives $500 to purchase poetry resources for their school library.

Should the Kansas state winner be unable to participate at the national Poetry Out Loud finals, the runner-up will represent Kansas at the national competition.

The runner-up will also receive $100 and her school will also receive $200 for poetry materials.

The person receiving third place in the 2022 Kansas Poetry Out Loud competition is Madeline Fritz.

(audience applauds) The second place runner-up for 2022 Kansas Poetry Out Loud is Nova Hagerman.

(audience applauds) Which means the 2022 Kansas Poetry Out Loud champion is Allie Cloyd.

(audience applauds) (upbeat music) Congratulations and thanks to all students, judges, regional coordinators, parents and teachers, and our special guests for attending the Kansas Poetry Out Loud state finals.

Remember that you can watch our state champion represent Kansas at the national semi-finals at arts.gov on Sunday, May 1st.

(audience applauds) (upbeat music) Ben and Judy Coates proudly support KTWU and arts education.