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Executive Message
About the Contest

Names
Poems
Schools

Names
Poems
Schools

Partners
Sponsors

2006 Poetry Out Loud Contest in Ohio

Contestant Poems

Emily Astorian � Granville High School

�Forgetfulness� by Billy Collins

�Catch a Little Rhyme� by Eve Merriam

�Advice to a Prophet� by Richard Wilbur

Jackson Hille � Columbus Alternative High School

�A Satirical Elegy on the Death of a Late Famous General� by Jonathan Swift

�Altruism� by Molly Peacock

�Forgetfulness� by Billy Collins

Lee Horton � Mount Gilead High School

�Eagle Poem� by Joy Harjo

�Famous� by Naomi Shihab Nye

�Ways of Talking� by Ha Jin

Robert Jones � Eastmoor Academy High School

�The Negro Speaks of Rivers� by Langston Hughes

�Broken Promises� by David Kirby

�To My Mother� by Wendell Berry

Jon Lamotte � Bishop Hartley High School

�Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening� by Robert Frost

��Hope� is the thing with feathers�� by Emily Dickinson

�Trees� by Joyce Kilmer

Casey Osman � Westland High School

�Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night� by Dylan Thomas

�We Wear the Mask� by Paul Laurence Dunbar

�Let it Be Forgotten� by Sarah Teasdale

Meredith Smith � Thomas Worthington High School

�Still I Rise� by Maya Angelou

�Beautiful Black Men� by Nikki Giovonni

�Bilingual/Bilingue� by Rhina P. Espaillat

Ways of Talking

We used to like talking about grief
Our journals and letters were packed
with losses, complaints, and sorrows.
Even if there was no grief
we wouldn�t stop lamenting
as though longing for the charm
of a distressed face.

Then we couldn�t help expressing grief
So many things descended without warning:
labor wasted, loves lost, houses gone,
marriages broken, friends estranged,
ambitions worn away by immediate needs.
Words lined up in our throats
for a good whining.
Grief seemed like an endless river�
the only immortal flow of life.

After losing a land and then giving up a tongue,
we stopped talking of grief
Smiles began to brighten our faces.
We laugh a lot, at our own mess.
Things become beautiful,
even hailstones in the strawberry fields.

Ha Jin

Ha Jin, �Ways of Talking� from Facing Shadows. Copyright � 1996 by Ha Jin. Reprinted with the permission of Hanging Loose Press.