Living Words: Burlington High "Poetry Out Loud" Finals Are Tomorrow

Poetry will once again come alive as holds its annual Poetry Out Loud finals tomorrow morning.

The contest, featuring 25 student finalists, will be held tomorrow at 9 a.m. in the Burlington High School auditorium. Anyone interested in watching the event live can tune into Burlington High Principal Patrick Larkin's blog, which will feature a live broadcast from .

Poetry Out Loud is a national competition sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation. For the competition, students across the country select a poem from the competition's list and try to bring it to life through recitation. Winners from each participating school can move onto state finals and finally to the National Finals in Washington, DC, this year being held from May 13 to 15.

The 25 students who qualified for the BHS finals are listed below, courtesy of Principal Larkin's blog. We also have a couple of pictures from this year's semi-finals held on Feb. 3. Also find two videos from last year's competition we put together.

Congratulations to the all the finalists!

Period One

• WINNER: Emily Murgo with Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night by Dylan Thomas
• 2nd Place: Michaela Mazure with The Days Gone By
• 3rd Place (TIE): Allie Hardy with Her Kind; Sarah Horwitz with Blind Curse

Period Two

• WINNER: Marissa Coté with The Painter by John Ashberry
• 2nd Place (TIE): Sharon Kumar with News; Maya Russell with The Uniform
• 3rd Place: Alex Moffatt with The Destruction of Sennacherib

Period Three  

• WINNER: Zaven Ovian with Sonnet XXIX by William Shakespeare
• 2nd Place: Laura Simon-Pearson with Conversation
• 3rd Place (TIE): Katrina Gilstrap with Poor Angels; Luke Schissler with I Felt a Funeral in my Brain

Period Four

• WINNER: Nicolette Moodie with Beautiful Wreckage by W.D. Ehrhart
• 2nd Place (TIE): Rachel Murgo with Calling Him Back from Layoff; TJ Horgan with The Way it Sometimes is
• 3rd Place: Nicholas Fahey with Kubla Khan

Period Five

• WINNER: Pranav Menon with Two Guitars by Victor Hernandez Cruz
• 2nd Place – WILD CARD WINNER: Emily Martin with Calling Him Back from Layoff by Bob Hicok
• 3rd Place: Isha Mehta with My Brother, the Artist, at Seven

Period Six

• WINNER: Kylie Scott with The Empty Dance Shoes by Cornelius Eady
• 2nd Place: Edward Gelberg with Ego
• 3rd Place: Luke O’Donnell with Mingus at the Showplace

Period Seven

• WINNER: Toula Papadopoulos with Calling Him Back from Layoff by Bob Hicok
• 2nd Place: Giovanna Fernandes with A Locked House
• 3rd Place: Chris Coe with Snow Day