Stage lights shine brightly in senior Zoe Skidis’ eyes. Standing in front of a large crowd, about to give her regional presentation, Skidis can barely see her parents and English teacher Andria Benmuvhar. Skidis takes a deep breath and begins her rendition before the Poetry Out Loud judges.

Poetry Out Loud is a form of speech competition where students in grades nine through 12 memorize poems — two for the school competition and three for regionals — and perform them in front of a panel of judges. After winning her school’s competition and regionals, Skidis moved on to state-level competitions, where she performed with the hopes of getting to the national competition in Washington, D.C.

“It’s an opportunity for high schoolers to pick several poems that resonate with them or that they enjoy, and they memorize them. They can learn about the author, learn about the poem’s origin. It’s like taking something somebody already wrote but putting your own spin and interpretation on it. You’re making it your own,” Skidis said.

This is Skidis’ first year competing in Poetry Out Loud. The three poems she performed at regionals were “I Am Offering this Poem” by Jimmy Santiago Baca, “A Birthday” by Christina Rossetti and “Tomorrow” by Dennis O’Driscoll.

“The first time I read all three of these poems, I thought they were beautiful, but I didn’t understand them as well as I do now that I’ve read them dozens of times, have them memorized and know a lot about the authors and history behind the poems,” Skidis said. “It’s very true for people [too]. [You] might look at someone and think you know them, but you’re missing a lot of this story until you dive deeper. The more you interact with them, the more you learn, understand and appreciate all of the things about the poems and things in your life.”

Contestants are scored on their dramatics, diction, stage presence, understanding of the poems and overall performance.

“I’ve always liked writing stories, but I’ve never done a lot of poetry-type stuff. Doing something different was really cool. I realized that I like poetry a lot. When [Benmuvhar] started introducing this competition, I thought it’d be really fun because I loved poetry so much last year,” Skidis said.

To prepare for the upcoming competition, Skidis practiced her interpretations, watched YouTube videos of past winners and watched competitors give their speeches. When Skidis went to Jefferson City, Mo., to compete at the state level, she had the chance to talk with her peers and listen to some of the poetry other contestants have written.

“I [wrote] poetry last year for creative writing. One of [the poems I wrote] is a sad love poem. It’s called ‘I only see your shadow.’ It’s about missing an opportunity and wanting something to happen with someone, but it just doesn’t quite work out,” Skidis said. “It’s a little more about myself, but I have another poem dedicated to a cousin of mine who lost his mom to cancer. That poem is about cherishing family and being grateful for it as long as it’s there because you never know what’s gonna happen. You are still supposed to be reminded of their love, the things they did and the reasons they were in your life. Reflecting on that can shine some light and make you feel better even in their absence.”

At the state-level competition, Skidis shared her work with other contestants, achieving her goal going into the contest. But as the performance grew closer, Skidis faced incoming nerves about going onstage.

“I was nervous before my first poem, but I felt really good once I got there. I wasn’t as nervous for my other two because I knew how it [was] gonna go. I think my poems went really well. I had a lot of friends watching the live stream video from home, and they [were] texting me, ‘You’re doing great,’ and it made me feel great,” Skidis said.

Though Skidis did not win state, she believes the competition allowed other people to better understand her as they watched her explore her poetic side.

“I knew if I didn’t win, nothing horrible would happen. So, [I] just went out there and wanted to show people what I could do and do my best,” Skidis said. “I’ve always known that I’ve been into language [studies], but I think it’s [been] revealed to a lot of other people in my life, not only my family but my friends [and] my teachers. They’ve all discovered something about me that I don’t think they knew before. Most of the time, when you write something, it’s private. There are things that I’d write about all the time, but it’s not necessarily something I talk about with other people. But now that I’m doing this competition, I feel like people know me better because of it. They understand this part of my life that they didn’t before.”