Click here to subscribe today or Login.
Some can be poets and not even know it, but Maggie Gilbertson and Olivia Romano are well-aware of their talents.
Gilbertson, 16, and Romano, 18, both had the chance to participate in in the 2015 Poetry Out Loud Regional Competition in February.
Romano and Gilbertson, along with four other students from the region took part in the WVIA competition in February, and their performances will be aired on WVIA-TV at 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 7.
For Gilbertson and Romano, reading poetry is not just a hobby — it has meaning for both of them.
“I like poetry a lot and am part of Breaking Ground Poets,” said Gilbertson, a sophomore at Dallas High School. “I heard about Reading Poetry Out Loud and I was encouraged to do it.”
Breaking Ground Poets is a youth poetry non-profit organization located in Tunkhannock where poetry workshops are held and students work and practice on their own poems together.
It was at Breaking Ground Poets that Gilbertson and Romano met.
A senior a Tunkhannock Area High School, Romano said the bond over poetry helped her and Gilbertson become good friends.
“I love Maggie,” said Romano. “We’ve known each other through Breaking Ground Poets and we became close this past summer when we were on the Brave New Voices team. We were on a team together practicing every day of every week and we became close.”
Because of the Breaking Ground Poets, Gilberton and Romano already had a lot of competition experience.
“I write, too, and I compete in poetry slams,” said Gilbertson. “They’re just competitions. Usually, there will be a group of kids and there are three rounds. It’s supposed to be reliant on the performance act and then a panel of judges will score you.”
Gilbertson usually does very well in slams, having won a few.
The poems Gilbertson read for the WVIA competition were “Her Kind” by Anne Sexton and “When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer” by Walt Whitman.
“I chose them because I like Walt Whitman,” said Gilbertson. “He is one of my favorite poets and Anne Sexton is one of my top five favorites as well.”
Romano’s poems of choice where “She Walks in Beauty” by Lord Byron, “Make a Law so That the Spine Remembers Wings” by Larry Leather and “Degrees of Gray in Phillipsburg” by Richard Hugo.
Performing for the camera can be nerve-wracking, but Romano calmed down almost instantly when it was her time to to shine.
“I expected to be more nervous than I was,” said Romano. “I instantly made eye contact with my teacher and that significantly calmed me down and when I began reading I found a setting in which I was comfortable. It wasn’t as terrifying as I imagined it being.”
Of the six students who participated in the WVIA Poetry Out Loud Regional Competition, Romano advanced to the state level and competed in Harrisburg on March 9.
Unfortunately, she did not place, but the experience she had from going is a reward all its own.
Both young poets are taking different approaches in whether or not to watch their performances on Tuesday.
“I’ll definitely watch,” said Gilbertson. “I’m okay with it. I like watching myself so I know what to work on for next time.”
“My family plans on watching it,” said Romano. “I want to watch it. I may not watch myself, but I want to see the competition again.”
When not competing, Romano and Gilbertson read and write poetry of their own, and Romano said the performance at WVIA was the first time she read out loud a poem that was not written by her.
“This is the first time I’ve recited someone else’s poetry,” said Romano. “I mostly write my own. I write about everything, I am a love poet and I write more romantic poems. I write about current events and things like that.”
Re-runs of the WVIA competition will be aired at 5 p.m. on Sunday, April 12 and at 7 p.m. on Thursday, April 18 on WVIA-TV.