CHAMPAIGN — Senior Kareem Sayegh used his readings of works by John Donne and Allen Ginsberg to qualify for a second trip to the Poetry Out Loud state finals.

Sayegh was named runner-up in the 2009 Eastern Illinois Poetry Out Loud regional contest, which took place Feb. 7 at the Champaign Public Library.

Samantha Porter of Paxton-Buckley-Loda won the competition, which required each student to recite two poems.

"It was pretty good this year," said Sayegh, who recited "Holy Sonnets: Batter my heart, three-person'd God" by John Donne and "A Supermarket in California" by Allen Ginsberg.

"I think it was easier this year because I knew my method for memorizing poems. I knew what to expect when memorizing a poem. You kind of know where your mistake regions are. You try to fix them. … Other than that it was fairly comfortable. … I felt like it was fun, and I really enjoy this program. It's just a fun thing for me to do."

Uni sophomore Claire Liu also competed at the event. Sayegh won Uni's schoolwide recitation contest in late January, and Liu was school runner-up.

Liu recited "The Great Blue Heron" by Carolyn Kizer and "i carry your heart with me(i carry it in" by E.E. Cummings.

"It's a new experience so I was really nervous about it at first," Liu said. "But I have a lot of friends who helped me out with the choosing-the-poem process and kind of listening to me speak. And also Kareem helped me a little bit, which was fun. I think it's really great to actually hear other people speaking poetry. This is something I've never done before."

The regional winner and runner-up weren't announced until Feb. 13; the delay was because two of the six regional finalists weren't aware of the two-poem requirement. They each recited one poem on Feb. 7 and another poem five days later.

It's the second consecutive year that Sayegh will compete in the state finals; he won the regional contest last year and finished in the top five at state. The 2009 state competition will take place March 10 in Springfield.

Poetry Out Loud is a nationwide recitation competition sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation. The national finals will be held April 26-28 in Washington, D.C. The winner will receive a $20,000 scholarship.

The six students who participated in this year's regional event were Sayegh and Liu from Uni High; Porter and Monica Jarboe from PBL; and Jamechia Ray and Trenika Washington from READY High School, an alternative school in Champaign.

The Eastern Illinois regional contest is sponsored by the 40 North | 88 West local arts, culture, and entertainment council; the Illinois Arts Council sponsors the state contest.

The competitors at each level of Poetry Out Loud are judged on physical presence, voice and articulation, appropriateness of dramatization, level of difficulty, evidence of understanding, overall performance, and accuracy.

Porter, the regional winner, recited "Interior at Petworth: From Turner" by Rosanna Warren and "Altruism" by Molly Peacock.

Steven Bentz, director of operations for 40 North | 88 West, said the competition was extremely close; the judges were impressed by the high percentage of excellent recitations among the contestants.

The judges were Anna Hochhalter, Urbana public arts coordinator; Michael La Due, Champaign city councilman and Champaign Public Library trustee; and Janet Soesbe, Urbana Park District community program manager.

"It was an extremely strong group of kids," he said. "There were no moments where the prompting judge had to step in and feed someone a line. Everyone knew their poems cold. One of the judges commented that the participants this year really seemed committed to their poems. She said they really seemed to have a handle on these and understand them deeply. It's not just rote memorization; they really seemed to know this work."

RECITATIONS BY KAREEM SAYEGH AND CLAIRE LIU

To hear recordings of Kareem Sayegh and Claire Liu from the Poetry Out Loud regional contest, click the audio box located below right. Sayegh performs first; he recites "Holy Sonnets: Batter my heart, three-person'd God" by John Donne. Liu begins about 1:08 into the recording. She recites "The Great Blue Heron" by Carolyn Kizer. The texts of both poems are included below.

"Holy Sonnets: Batter my heart, three-person'd God"
By John Donne

Batter my heart, three-person'd God, for you
As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend;
That I may rise and stand, o'erthrow me, and bend
Your force to break, blow, burn, and make me new.
I, like an usurp'd town to another due,
Labor to admit you, but oh, to no end;
Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,
But is captiv'd, and proves weak or untrue.
Yet dearly I love you, and would be lov'd fain,
But am betroth'd unto your enemy;
Divorce me, untie or break that knot again,
Take me to you, imprison me, for I,
Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.

"The Great Blue Heron"
By Carolyn Kizer

M.A.K., September 1880-September 1955

As I wandered on the beach
I saw the heron standing
Sunk in the tattered wings
He wore as a hunchback’s coat.
Shadow without a shadow,
Hung on invisible wires
From the top of a canvas day,
What scissors cut him out?
Superimposed on a poster
Of summer by the strand
Of a long-decayed resort,
Poised in the dusty light
Some fifteen summers ago;
I wondered, an empty child,
“Heron, whose ghost are you?”

I stood on the beach alone,
In the sudden chill of the burned.
My thought raced up the path.
Pursuing it, I ran
To my mother in the house.
And led her to the scene.
The spectral bird was gone.
But her quick eye saw him drifting
Over the highest pines
On vast, unmoving wings.
Could they be those ashen things,
So grounded, unwieldy, ragged,
A pair of broken arms
That were not made for flight?
In the middle of my loss
I realized she knew:
My mother knew what he was.

O great blue heron, now
That the summer house has burned
So many rockets ago,
So many smokes and fires
And beach-lights and water-glow
Reflecting pinwheel and flare:
The old logs hauled away,
The pines and driftwood cleared
From that bare strip of shore
Where dozens of children play;
Now there is only you
Heavy upon my eye.
Why have you followed me here,
Heavy and far away?
You have stood there patiently
For fifteen summers and snows,
Denser than my repose,
Bleaker than any dream,
Waiting upon the day
When, like gray smoke, a vapor
Floating into the sky,
A handful of paper ashes,
My mother would drift away.

Poetry Out Loud 2009: Eastern Illinois Regional Finalists

Six students competed in the Eastern Illinois Poetry Out Loud regional contest Feb. 7 at the Champaign Public Library. From left: Jamechia Ray (READY H.S.), Trenika Washington (READY H.S.), first-place winner Samantha Porter (PBL), Monica Jarboe (PBL), Claire Liu (Uni), and runner-up Kareem Sayegh (Uni). At right is Steven Bentz, director of operations for 40 North | 88 West, which sponsored the contest. Gargoyle photo by David Porreca (click to enlarge)