YOUR SPACE: Teen's gift of recitation gets her a chance to win $20,000

Scary poem chick.

Fifteen-year-old Brittany Harden says that's how she's known after reading a dark poem by Mary Karr to the entire school.

It goes with the turf of a state poetry champ.

This week, the Palmer High School freshman is representing Colorado in Washington, D.C., in the National Poetry Out Loud contest (www. poetryoutloud.org).

Students memorize and perform selected poems - in her case, Karr's piece about the devil's tour of hell - not their own works.

Poetry tends to get a bad rap from teens. It drew some initial scoff in Brittany's honors English class.

"At first a lot were like, ‘Oh, I don't want to do this. It is so boring," she says. "I liked poetry for a long time. This really brought me forward into doing it."

That's the goal, says teacher Heather Brown. "When put in spoken form it comes much more alive to students."

Poetry Out Loud started in 2005 to ignite students' appreciation of poetry.

Brittany appreciates it. "It is not just saying the quickest thing, but looking deep. . . . This is what is going on inside, behind the facade, behind the mask you throw on every day. Behind all that. That's where poems come from. It's what your heart's thinking instead of your head."

She likes the drama of it. She got her start on stage as a Munchkin in "The Wizard of Oz" in fourth grade. She's in the chorus of Palmer's musical "Grease."

Before the recent state meet, she sounded off in the bathroom. "I was pretty much yelling my poem. I could hear myself echoing."

Her saving grace? Going last. "I could look at everybody else. There was a girl I really admired. I thought she was going to win. When they called my name, ‘I'm like, ‘That's not her name. Oh, wait, that's mine.'"

Brittany won $200 and a trip to D.C. for a shot at the $20,000 top prize. Palmer got $500 for poetry books.

Brittany also writes poems. Like this about the Twin Towers: "I watched them fall that day. One. Then another. Now we fight for peace. America, can't we see our ignorance? Why do we follow a stranger with dark blind eyes? I will show pride when lives are spared. I cannot live when blood is tasted over ice . . ."

Well, you get the gist. No roses-arered jingles.

She moved here from Texas last year. "My mom randomly decided she wanted a change of scenery. Both of my parents have helped me out. At the first competition I won, I had the loudest cheer in the audience because my mom and stepdad were yelling."

Palmer Alumni Association paid for her mom to go on the D.C. trip, where she's also reading Robert Frost's "After Apple Picking."

"It's about a man at the end of his life and looking back, wondering if he could have done things better. He is nervous about when he is going to pass away. Some of the things remind me of the competition because it is nerve-racking, and I don't feel like I am ready for it."

Tell me your stories: 636-0253 or andrea.brown@gazette.com.