Anderson and McKenna
Poetry Out Loud is a national program that encourages high school students to learn about poetry as they memorize and perform notable poems in competitions that begin in the classroom and culminate with national championships in Washington, D.C.
With their winning performances, Anderson and McKenna advanced to the regional competition scheduled for 6 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 26 at the College of Saint Rose in Albany. McKenna won for his recitation of “Cartoon Physics, part 1,” by Nick Flynn, while Anderson placed second for his rendition of “Alone” by Edgar Allan Poe. They competed against 60 other students from the high school. Watch their performances and follow along:
Cartoon Physics, part 1 By Nick Flynn
Children under, say, ten, shouldn’t know
that the universe is ever-expanding,
inexorably pushing into the vacuum, galaxies
swallowed by galaxies, whole
solar systems collapsing, all of it
acted out in silence. At ten we are still learning
the rules of cartoon animation,
that if a man draws a door on a rock
only he can pass through it.
Anyone else who tries
will crash into the rock. Ten-year-olds
should stick with burning houses, car wrecks,
ships going down—earthbound, tangible
disasters, arenas
where they can be heroes. You can run
back into a burning house, sinking ships
have lifeboats, the trucks will come
with their ladders, if you jump
you will be saved. A child
places her hand on the roof of a schoolbus,
& drives across a city of sand. She knows
the exact spot it will skid, at which point
the bridge will give, who will swim to safety
& who will be pulled under by sharks. She will learn
that if a man runs off the edge of a cliff
he will not fall
until he notices his mistake.
“Cartoon Physics, part 1″ by Nick Flynn from Some Ether. Copyright 2000 by Nick Flynn. Reprinted by permission of Graywolf Press. Source: Some Ether (Graywolf Press, 2000)
“Alone” By Edgar Allan Poe
From childhood’s hour I have not been
As others were—I have not seen
As others saw—I could not bring
My passions from a common spring—
From the same source I have not taken
My sorrow—I could not awaken
My heart to joy at the same tone—
And all I lov’d—I lov’d alone—
Then—in my childhood—in the dawn
Of a most stormy life—was drawn
From ev’ry depth of good and ill
The mystery which binds me still—
From the torrent, or the fountain—
From the red cliff of the mountain—
From the sun that ’round me roll’d
In its autumn tint of gold—
From the lightning in the sky
As it pass’d me flying by—
From the thunder, and the storm—
And the cloud that took the form
(When the rest of Heaven was blue)
Of a demon in my view—
Source: American Poetry: The Nineteenth Century (1993)