Pictured here after the school competition, Justin Anderson, Shelby Schaefer, James Lugo, Samantha Isbell, and Lesley Garrett went on to represent LOHS well at Maiden Alley Cinema.

Photo courtesy of Bryan Creason

Bryan Creason

Entertainment Editor

   To some, poetry is a dead art. To others, it’s reserved only for brooding beatniks and haughty hipsters in cramped coffee shops. For many students enrolled in Lone Oak High School, however, poetry is alive and well. Many of them signed up to perform a piece for Poetry Out Loud, a contest created to promote poetry awareness. State wide winners are rewarded with prizes of large cash sums, usually in the form of scholarship money.

    To participate, students had to sign up in their English and Public Speaking classes, choose a poem from a list, and perform it in front of their peers. The winners from each classroom were chosen by either their teachers or their classmates. They then performed their chosen poem in the library in front of three judges. The five winners were: Justin Anderson, Shelby Schaefer, James Lugo, Lesley Garrett, and Samantha Isbell. Ms. Isbell will be going to the state-wide competition on March 21st in Frankfort.

    All five winners participated in another recitation of their poems at the Maiden Alley Cinema, along with students from Heath and Reidland, for a district-wide competition. Shelby Schaefer, Samantha Isbell, Lesley Garrett, and Justin Anderson all placed, with Justin Anderson coming in first among the 15 competitors.

“...poetry is alive and well.”