Poetry Out Loud is a competition where several people read a poem of their choosing and a group of judges listen to the poem’s recitation and together decide which performance was the strongest. Riley O’Hara, a sophomore at SVHS entered and won first place in the local Poetry Out Loud competition.

O’Hara began his Poetry Out Loud adventure as an in-class assignment where all the students were told to choose a poem and recite it to the class. Coming out as the winner was not in his mind “I did not expect that…I didn’t even think I would get past the classroom competition…it was a big surprise…”

The poem O’Hara chose was “1969” by Alex Dimitrov, recited at the in-class competition. “I picked it because I thought it was interesting both as a poem itself and also thematically…it just stood out to me” says O’Hara. As of today, O’Hara is onto the statewide competition of Poetry Out Loud as the Sonoma County representative, the first in SVHS history. 

In preparation for the competition O’Hara explains “I just kind of say the poems in my head to myself over and over and over to make sure I have them completely memorized…and put more emotion into it and usually just try to connect with it.” a strategy that has helped him along his journey in this competition. O’Hara has enjoyed his time doing Poetry Out Loud and feels enthusiastic about the state level competition.