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3 of 3 Premium Clicks used this month SUBSCRIBE Print + Online Subscriber Activation | Register x Forgot Password | Need an Account? e-edition | subscribe | newsletter | deals Home News Latest Stories Emergency Services, March 25 Gold Hill man suspected of window-smashing spree in Grants Pass Oxygen masks of all sizes help smoke-choked pets Backyard bee ban begone, planners say St. Mary's student helps others with diabetes Crime, Courts and Emergency Services Emergency Services, March 25 Emergency Services, March 24 Phoenix High officer looks back on varied career Emergency services, March 23 Crisis intervention: Medford police take training in response to surge in mental health calls Politics and Elections Arthur I. Cyr: Iran – a crisis without end Arthur I. Cyr: South Korea represents long-term triumph – for them and for US Special election: Jackson County voters OK marijuana tax Ex-Merkley aide chosen as Oregon secretary of state Ashland: Budget increase, swimming pool funding discussion on council agenda Education Dianne Williamson: College admissions mania ill-advised Oregon legislators may end fifth-year high school programs Phoenix High officer looks back on varied career Oregon school officials blasting new education budget Eight vie for Medford School Board positions Environment Corps hopes to clear Lost Creek Lake of debris Beetles taking toll on Ashland pines Mt. Ashland Ski Area to host party March 28 Controversial asphalt plant in Talent wins county planning approval Mt. 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Welch Peggy Medeiros Richard "Dick" Cooper Sherrill Elaine Wells Weather Photo Galleries Since You Asked Videos Web Cams Mail Tribune 100 Shareable Bank of America is predicting a massive Tesla collapse Sports Latest Stories Crater comes up short in tourney opener Wait is over Former North runner Jordan triumphs Westbrook leads Thunder past Lakers Guthrie returns to kick off fundraising Varsity 541 College Sports Former North runner Jordan triumphs Howland introduced as Mississippi State coach ASU fires Sendek after nine seasons Against UCLA, Zags get a shot at revenge Ducks' Young eager to play at the next level Pro Sports Wait is over Westbrook leads Thunder past Lakers Guthrie returns to kick off fundraising Browns shun ‘Hard Knocks’ program Circuit wasn't an accomplice in Keselowski win Community Sports Business Latest Stories Ashland's Standing Stone brew pub joins green beer coalition Seasonally adjusted jobless rate dips to 7 percent for first time since May 2008 Broth maker leaves San Diego for Medford Cars We Remember: 1967 Rambler Rebel, 1960 Rambler American Super, and some early engine design flaws Silvio Calabi: Nissan has a winner with its new Murano Real Estate News East McAndrews Road sees a resurgence in commercial projects Business briefs: March 7 New construction prices jump 18.2 percent in Jackson County People In Business People in Business: Feb. 28 Transportation Rogue Disposal plans natural gas fueling site Alaska, United Express boost Medford airport to record February CEO Rieder leaving Erickson March 31 Lodging gains bode well for travel industries Agriculture Broth maker leaves San Diego for Medford Harry & David announces new president Opinion Latest Our View: Public records rules should apply to lawmakers, too Letters to the Editor, March 25 Kathleen Parker: Wacko birds nesting in U.S. Senate Rick Holmes: What addicts say about getting high and getting better Landgren cartoon: Arsenic wine Editorials Our View: Public records rules should apply to lawmakers, too Our View: Oregon schools will have to make do with a little more money Our View: Medford police tried to avoid confrontation Other Views: Dave Frohnmayer was a man of honor Our View: Textbook authors' reasoning hard to fathom Letters to the Editor Letters to the Editor, March 25 Letters to the Editor, March 24 Letters to the Editor, March 23 Letters to the Editor, March 22 Letters to the Editor, March 21 Columns Kathleen Parker: Wacko birds nesting in U.S. Senate Michael Gerson: How to block a bad nuclear deal with Iran Kathleen Parker: Dear Starbucks: Let's not talk George Will: Social inequality's deepening roots Guest Opinion: Raise your voice against child abuse Guest Opinions Guest Opinion: Raise your voice against child abuse Guest Opinion: Central Point Cemetery needs work and city action Guest Opinion: Return to clearcutting is wrong approach for counties Guest Opinion: Plan a Hawthorne playground for all children Guest Opinion: There is nothing uniform about the Uniform Crime Report Lifestyle Latest stories Dear Monty: The best real estate agent referrals Dave Ramsey: Pay kids for getting good grades? 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Plant a few dahlias, Dahling Hello, honey: Invite bees for a lush garden Health St. Mary's student helps others with diabetes Community blog: Sleep Tight: Making Your Bed, Body and Mind Ready for Rest Health Watch: 5 tips for seasonal allergy relief A better bedtime Studying stress Hiking Biking Faith Religion briefs Religion News: Presbyterian Church gives approval on same-sex marriage Religion briefs: Friday, March 13 More religion events in the Rogue Valley Religion Briefs Milestones and Achievements Haga-Parks Exercise helps special-needs kids adjust to airport procedures Engagement: Workman-Wright Columnist for a Day Rogue Healthy Aging Tempo Latest stories Alan Berman Trio plays the Imperial Ballroom in Medford Eugene O'Neill's 'Long Day's Journey into Night' opens at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival The Brothers Reed win a slot in the Rising Stars finals Pimps of Joytime play Historic Ashland Armory Here's five top entertainment picks for the coming week Theater Eugene O'Neill's 'Long Day's Journey into Night' opens at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival Camelot's 'Sunset Boulevard' ambitious, not as dark Andrew Lloyd Webber's lush musical 'Sunset Boulevard' opens at Camelot Theatre in Talent Review: Thanks for the Memories pulls off challenging 'Anastasia' Review: 'Same Time' after all these years Music Pimps of Joytime play Historic Ashland Armory Live Music in Local Clubs Alt-rock band Key of Three is a contender this weekend at Rising Stars Improv rock and folk band hosts a dance party at the Ashland Community Center Kites & Crows, Ryan Marchand and Mercy Duo face-off this weekend at Rising Stars music competition in Jacksonville Community Events Rogue Valley artist Linda Evans' pastel paintings capture landscapes of Southern Oregon Ashland Independent Film Festival announces this year's lineup OSF Hip-Hop Poetry Open Mic Ashland's First Friday Art Walk showcases new exhibits by regional artists Jesse Lawson and Joe Moxley host 'Barkeeper' Dining Parsing the meaning behind wine medals and scores Restaurant Inspections: Sunday, March 22 Jasmine Thai Cuisine Restaurant Inspections Agave offers gourmet tacos, tamales, ensaladas and more Tempo Videos Classifieds Jobs Autos Real Estate FEATURED » Obits Blogs TV Listings Movie Listings Oregon Outdoors Oregon Healthy Living Magazines/Special Sections Business Services NEWS NOW Gold Hill man suspected of window-smashing spree in Grants Pass ... Our View: Public records rules should apply to lawmakers, too ... Corps hopes to clear Lost Creek Lake of debris ... Gold Hill man suspected of window-smashing spree in Grants Pass ... Our View: Public records rules should apply to lawmakers, too ... Corps hopes to clear Lost Creek Lake of debris ... Barbara Presnell: Why poetry? And why do it now? By Barbara Presnell More Content Now MailTribune.com By Barbara Presnell More Content Now Posted Mar. 20, 2015 @ 8:43 am By Barbara Presnell More Content Now Posted Mar. 20, 2015 @ 8:43 am » Social News p bs:newslist StartDate="20121121" EndDate="p bs:datecalc Months="3"" DateSort="1" UseObjects="1" ObjectClass="81" Taxonomywords="2325,665" ExactTaxonomyMatch="1" Image="1" Count="4" --> If the young high school student was nervous when her name was called, she didn’t show it. Every hair was in place. She looked classy in her blue print dress and mid-height heels. She walked to the front of the room with confidence, past the judges’ table and the chairs filled with parents, poets, officials and other students. She positioned herself in front of the microphone, made the requisite eye contact with the audience, took a deep breath and began. “Hope.” She paused. “Is the thing with feathers. That perches. On the soul.” The timing between phrases was perfect. The emphasis on the words clear and confident. Her rendering of this well-known and well-loved poem by Emily Dickinson was solid, and she knew it, you could tell, when she walked back to her chair. I was one of those judges, and this was the North Carolina State Semi-Finals and Finals of the Poetry Out Loud competition. These were students who had won similar competitions at the school level and the county level. The winner today would go on to the final competition in Washington, D.C. Every performance was good. Students rarely forgot lines, and they understood the depth and beauty of the pieces they were reciting. The dramatic interpretations were just enough, not too much. Judging one to be better than the other was not easy at all. The Poetry Out Loud program, now in its 10th year, was new to me. A combined effort of the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation, the program was designed to help students across the nation learn, explore and appreciate poetry by reciting it. Apparently it has worked, because last year over 365,000 high school students participated, and the number keeps on growing. Our new North Carolina poet laureate Shelby Stephenson opened the competition by reading a few poems of his own and talking to the students about his love of words. In addition, he gave each student a copy of his book, “Fiddledeedee.” Throughout the day, I saw students reading it between events. As I listened to the students reciting poems and watched the delighted faces of parents, poets and others in attendance, I wondered, why poetry? And why now? This growing interest in poetry is not just happening within this one group on this one day. Poetry is becoming cool. Of course, this is a relative thing. There are no shoe endorsements for poetry. No TV networks devoted to it, no March Madness of poetry. But it’s true. Why are more and more students signing up for Poetry Out Loud? Sure, there’s money in it for the winners, but it’s like playing the lottery — your chances of taking home the big prize are pretty slim. And why are our country’s over 400 graduate programs in creative writing so popular they’re turning away students? Obtaining a creative writing degree — I know this because I’ve got one — is like majoring in pipe dreams. Poets don’t make much money, even if they publish a lot. I suspect — sadly, this happened to me — poetry receives a bad reputation in schools. Students read the work of long ago poets like Shakespeare or Yeats or Lawrence. Or they read obscure work that’s difficult to understand by poets like E.E. Cummings or T.S. Eliot. Or they have teachers — this happened to me — who make them analyze it, make them find the metaphors and symbols and hidden meanings. Too often students aren’t asked how a poem makes them feel or how they can relate. Poetry, students often come to learn, is not relatable. This is also beginning to change. Students today might read a poem by, say, Maya Angelou, whose words can’t help but make them feel something, words that are familiar, are inspiring. Then a poet laureate, like Stephenson, will visit their classroom. Joseph Bathanti, our most recent poet laureate, made it his goal to visit veterans’ groups in particular, to get the servicemen and women writing about their experiences both when they were deployed and when they returned home. Today, there are veterans writing groups all over the state. Robert Frost wrote, “A poem begins as a lump in the throat, a sense of wrong, a homesickness, a lovesickness.” Poems, that is, come from those places in us where something is frightening, confusing or painful, and we are compelled to write about it in order to understand it. That’s exactly why, I think, poetry is becoming cool. These are scary times we live in. Every day we’re threatened by danger right here in our own towns. Right out our front doors. Every day we hear of violence and hatred and misguided thinking. Poetry may not be a cure for it, but poetry is a personal way of staying strong in a world that seems more wobbly all the time. “Hope,” wrote Dickinson, “is the thing with feathers— / That perches on the soul—/ And sings the tune without the words— / And never stops—at all—.” Outside her window, the Civil War was raging. Even today — especially today — those words offer something to hold onto in the middle of it all. So, why poetry? Why now? It seems like the better question is why not poetry, right now? Barbara Presnell is a poet and teacher of writing who lives in Lexington, North Carolina. Contact her at barbarapresnell.com. By Barbara Presnell More Content Now MailTribune.com By Barbara Presnell More Content Now Posted Mar. 20, 2015 @ 8:43 am » Comment or view comments /* $( document ).ready(function() { // Jquery mobile is trying to style the button and leaving a blank gry button on top of a white button $("#viafouracoms .vf-comment-controls li.vf-right").html(' Submit '); });*/ » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. calendar Connect with MailTribune.com Facebook Twitter RSS Back to top Reader Services Reader Services Home Subscriptions Subscriber controls Contact us Submissions Photos Events Letters to the editor Corrections Announcements Obituaries Story ideas Since you asked Alerts Email Alerts RSS Feeds Text Alerts Advertise Media Kit Home Products and services Ad rates Advertising contacts Mail Tribune Daily Tidings The Nickel Shop Our Valley Blogs Stay Informed Email newsletter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. 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