ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
High school students from around the country are here in D.C. this week to compete in the 20th annual Poetry Out Loud National Finals. Students memorize and perform poems in a variety of styles and time periods. We asked some of this year's 55 competitors how they're preparing.
EMILY PORTER: My name is Emily Porter. I'm from Logan High School in Logan County, West Virginia.
"The Coming Woman" by Mary Weston Fordham.
Looking at the poem, you have to dissect each section as a way to fully understand what the poet is trying to say.
Dear me. What a slow, poky man.
Right now, I am spending my days watching myself in the mirror, watching each move that I make to make sure that the moves that I make are interpreting the poem as they need to be interpreted.
ZEKE MOSES: My name is Zeke Moses, and I'm a freshman at Bexley High School in Columbus, Ohio.
"America, I Sing You Back" by Allison Adelle Hedge Coke.
To be so honest, I was never the type of person who loved poetry or appreciated poetry to the fullest. But as I've gone through this process, I've developed a newfound love of poetry.
Before America began to sing, I sung her to sleep, held her cradleboard, wept her into day.
NYLA DINKINS: My name is Nyla Dinkins. I attend Benjamin Banneker Academic High School in Washington, D.C.
"Learning To Read" by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper.
I think judges really want to understand or see that you can understand the poem and then also you can be the vessel of that information. And I think the way in which you make that poem your own is something that's really, like, powerful for judges to see.
Our masters always tried to hide book learning from our eyes. Knowledge didn't agree with slavery - 'twould make us all too wise.
SHAPIRO: That was Nyla Dinkins from Washington, D.C., Zeke Moses from Ohio and Emily Porter from West Virginia. They spoke with NPR's Elizabeth Blair. The champion of Poetry Out Loud will be announced Wednesday night.
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