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Cape third in poetry recitation

Selwyn House Grade 11 student Josh Cape took third place in the Quebec finals of Poetry in Voice, a bilingual poetry recitation contest held at Ecole Internationale de Montreal on April 2.
Selwyn House Grade 11 student Josh Cape took third place in the Quebec finals of Poetry in Voice, a bilingual poetry recitation contest held at Ecole Internationale de Montreal on April 2.

Josh was one of 11 finalists in the bilingual competition sponsored by Scott Griffin, the man behind the Griffin Poetry Prize, the biggest prize in the world awarded for a book of poetry. The competition began in Ontario, expanded to include Quebec this year, and will go national next year.

Competitors chose their poems from a list on the Poetry in Voice website. Most of the Quebec finalists recited in both French and English, and Josh was no exception, choosing “Give all to Love” by Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Telegramme de Dakar” by Henri Michaux, and “Danse Russe” by William Carlos Williams for the competition.

“I chose those poems because they allowed me to play with structure more than more classic poems might, and they also had a meaning that I found both evocative and playful,” says Josh. “I scorn poetry that is too overly depressing or too restricted. These poems were free in their allowance for interpretation and recital.”

Because he has competed in this type of event before, Josh says he did not find the task of memorizing the poems too difficult. He calculates that 20 minutes initial memorizing time, plus daily rehearsals, kept them firmly in his memory.

One challenge of this type of competition, however, is that everyone in the audience has the text of the poem being recited in front of him. “If you mess up everybody knows,” Josh points out. “Because everything is dependent on the one recitation—and all the practice in the world won’t ensure you nail it—the competition was nerve-wracking, but it was not hard if you prepared properly.”

Ironically, Josh claims to be no more of a poetry fan than most of his fellow students, though he lists e. e. cummings, Byron and Wilde among his favourites, along with the poetry that crops up in contemporary “slam” competitions.

“Unfortunately, poetry has lost a place in today's curriculum,” he admits. “Most teenagers disdain the tediousness usually associated with poetry, and I am no exception.”

Nevertheless, believes poetry still has an important place in today’s blog and Twitter culture. “Words are cheap nowadays,” he says. “Anybody can write as much as they want about whatever they want for free. Poetry enables us as a culture to redeem the value of language and the potential it holds.”
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