- The soft toned clock upon the stair chimed three too sweet for sleep, too early yet to rise, in restful peace I lay with half closed eyes watching the tender hours go dreamily.

I am interested in poetry because it offers me another outlet to perform.

At Northern Cass, poetry out loud is required.

- We use it in our English classes, nine through 12, to help develop their skills, not only interpreting poetry, but then reading it expressively.

- The fact that you can give the same poem to five different people and they'll interpret it differently, I really liked that aspect.

- The information materials are provided by the North Dakota Council on the Arts, it's a national program and Poetry Out Loud turns it into a competition.

- Congratulations to Kylie Howatt from Northern Cass High School.

- There's of course a winner at every level.

There's a winner at the state level.

There's a winner at the national level.

- And so we have classroom competitions and then they compete at the school level, usually about 10 to 12 kids from different grades.

And the winner of that goes on to the state competition.

And at the state competition they have three poems that they'll recite.

- So the requirements for the state level of poetry Out Loud is you have to have at least one poem that's 25 lines or fewer, and at least one poem that is pre 20th century.

- This year, they had to film them beforehand and then we send it in, and so they competed virtually.

- Last year, I did go to the state competition and performed in front of people and that was a much more intense experience.

People are there because they really do love poetry and they're there to listen and to hear everything.

When I first read The Barnacle by A.E.

Stallings, I loved it.

It was perfect.

It was everything that I was feeling about the world especially at that time, because it's about how stubborn people are.

And once they're in one mindset, they're only in that mindset and they will never change ever.

Once grown with nothing more to prove it hunkers down and will remain stuck fast.

And once it does not move has no more purpose for a brain.

- Yeah, Poetry Out Loud, they provide a website with a, a huge library of possibilities.

- Choosing poems isn't really about who the poet is, it's just about what the poem is about.

- Once they start reading the poetry they start to see pieces of their life in the poem.

- My last poem, Dream Song 14, I encountered a few years ago.

My brother was looking for poems for Poetry Out Loud and he found this poem and he came to me and was like, you have to read this poem.

It's so hilarious.

There's a line in the poem that my mom basically paraphrases a lot.

What she says is boring people get bored.

And in the poem, it's if you have no inner resources, you're going to get bored, basically.

- We spent quite a lot of time going through the poems and interpreting and really understanding them.

And then once we get to the competition level it's almost a challenge for them to memorize this.

And so we start with just memorize it and just say them, and then you slowly start adding phrasing and pauses and just give a little bit of flavor to it.

- Dawn by Ella Higginson, is really an appreciation for nature.

It's such a peaceful poem to me that I felt like it was a really good contrast, especially to The Barnacle.

The chanticleer sent drowsy calls across the slumbrous air in solemn silence, sweet it was to hear my own heart beat.

When I'm presenting my three poems, they each have a very distinct emotion to them and I really try to personify that in my voice and just in my expressions.

The only action that I do in any of my poems really isn't The Barnacle when it becomes stuck fast and it doesn't move.

A lot of times with poetry, the voice is all of that is really needed and if you add a lot of actions, it takes away from what you're saying, and it just makes it a little muddy.

Dream Song 14 by John Berryman.

Life, friends is boring.

We must not say so after all the sky flashes, the great sea yearns we ourselves flash and yearn and more over my mother told me as a boy repeatingly ever to confess you're bored means you have no inner resources.

I conclude now I have no inner resources because I am heavy bored.

Peoples bore me, literature bores me especially great literature.

Henry bores me with his flights and gripes as bad as Achilles, who loves people and valiant art which bores me and the tranquil ills and gin look like a drag.

And somehow a dog has taken itself and its tail considerably away into mountains or sea or sky leaving behind me, wag.

(piano music) - [Woman] Funded by the North Dakota Council on the Arts and by the members of Prairie Public.