Garfield was additionally recognized on the morning announcements Wednesday the 11th receiving a first place trophy from Dr. Brewer. For the regional competition in February, Garfield will recite her two poems of choice: “The Kiss” written by Robert Graves and “Song of The Shattering Vessels” written by Peter Cole.
Describe your reaction to winning the 2024 Poetry Out Loud competition.
I was so excited. I sort of saw it coming. I was hoping for top three. I was not expecting to totally win, but I had a good feeling about it.
Tell me about the poem you read and why you chose it.
The first one was about forbidden romance, and depicting lust from love, and how lust can change love. That really spoke to me. The second poem was about the world coming together and falling apart. I’m really inspired by world change, so when I hear people changing the world, it inspires me.
If you had to describe your performance in four words, which would you choose?
I’d say lots of emotions: confident, happy and dramatic.
What inspired you to go for this?
I just have a really big drive for competing. I wanted something to do to compete with people.
What English class do you take this year and who’s your teacher?
I’m taking English 10 Honors, and my teacher is Mrs. Young.
Did your teacher kind of push you or motivate you to achieve this?
Yes, she picked a couple people that she thought performed really well and that really motivated me to do this.
What does winning mean to you? What stage would you now advance to?
Winning just means I completed [it and] got the job done. I kind of went there with the mindset of winning. I wasn’t thinking of anything else but winning. I’m advancing to regionals in February [and] that’s against all the winners in the area.
How do you plan on preparing for the next round of competition?
I’m really going into detail and researching what my poem means and looking at every comma, getting every pause right, and emotion in the poem, that’s about it.
How did it feel receiving the trophy from Dr. Brewer and being recognized on the morning announcements?
I just felt like a job well done. It gave me butterflies and excitement like I could actually complete something and win.
