DiMino recites “Ego” by Denise Duhamel
By Jonathan M. Gornet ’14
THE ROUNDUP
Inside of the Brophy Blackbox Theater Feb. 1-3 and then again Feb. 9, students strolled up to a lone microphone to recite a poem that they choose in the annual Poetry Out Loud competition.
The students who won that contest were John DiMino ’12, who placed first in the contest, with Ryan Frankel ’14 taking second and Conner Wareing ’12 placing third.
The Poetry Out Loud contest is a competition where students from around the nation recite poems. The contest started in Brophy English classes, and winners then competed on the school level.
Part of the reason why these three won was the accuracy with poems, said Mr. John Damaso ’97.
“So in that final round was eight students and they had the highest point tallies from the last round. Their scores were higher than anyone else, but the hidden factor that a lot of people don’t know is accuracy…so that’s a place also where guys like John and Ryan and Conner set themselves apart,” Mr. Damaso said.
Before the contest, the waiting aspect was torturous, DiMino said.
“The hardest part of the contest was probably waiting to go,” DiMino said. “You know you’re in the Elite Eight and then you know you have to wait several days before the performance goes. And you get your poem memorized, and you’re ready to go and that waiting kills you, you get really nervous and you start to freak out and yeah, it’s that torture of waiting.”
The poem that DiMino recited in the Elite Eight was “Ego” by Denise Duhamel, a poem he said he chose because of its natural flow.
“I don’t like the poetry that’s all very strict rhyme and it’s got a beat and a measure to it and it rhymes like this and that from the end to the start, … I tried to find a poem that had more of a natural flow to it that was as if it were a person talking and ‘Ego’ by Denise Duhamel was the poem I ended up doing,” DiMino said.
DiMino will move on to compete at the regional level which will take place March 10 this year. Last year’s Poetry Out Loud regional competition took place at ASU Barrett Honors College with Wareing representing the school.
The contest at Barrett was a “whole different energy because every person there is constantly going through stuff in their mind over and over again,” Wareing said.
But this year there were also new things in the contest, Mr. Damaso said.
”Something that’s new is that we actually had a judge from ASU sit on the panel for our final round and we never had that before; it’s always been just Brophy teachers as judges so that was new,” Mr. Damaso said.
The Poetry Out Loud contest “is a great thing that Brophy is doing,” DiMino said.
“I didn’t think about reciting poetry ever in my life and then it’s nice though that they’re doing it because it’s an art form and it’s kind of lost until the fact that Brophy is putting it out there. And having it available as something for students is really good; it’s a fantastic program,” DiMino said.
