Madison Ford
Staff Writer
With her state championship win in Austin to qualify for the National Poetry Out Loud Competition, sophomore Maria Zuniga is bringing Coppell High School’s attention to the importance of poetry, while helping her school in the process.
Poetry Out loud is a nationwide poetry competition in which student competitors from around the United States perform three poems of their choice for an audience. The National Poetry Out Loud Competition takes place in Washington D.C. on April 27th, 28th, and 29th.
One of Zuniga’s competition poems is “And Soul” by Eavan Boland, about a daughter loosing her mother. The second, “Teaching English from an Old Composition Book” by Gary Soto, is about a teacher who teaches adults how to speak English and the trials they have to face. Her final poem is “On Monsieur’s Departure” by Queen Elizabeth I.
The poems Zuniga chose are not only engaging, but hold sentimental meaning to her, as well.
“There is a wide array of poems to pick from, and [my coach and I] were just sifting through poems, and ‘Teaching English from an Old Composition Book’ kind of stuck out because of my Spanish heritage and I really liked that it had some of that in there,” Zuniga said. “Then I chose ‘And Soul’ because it was beautifully written and my mom and I are really close, and [I chose] ‘On Monsieur’s Departure’ [because] I love Queen Elizabeth I.”
Following numerous rounds of cut-throat competition at the regional and state level, Zuniga was crowned the Texas State Poetry Out Loud champion on February 26th, the first woman in history to claim the award.
“In all honesty, I was not expecting anything,” Zuniga said. “I went into this not even knowing what I was doing. I knew I had to have these three poems memorized, I knew that it was kind of competitive, but it was just starting to get out there, and I moved on to state. And at state, once they announced my name, I was in shock. And now that I’m going to nationals I’m going to be in Washington for the first time, even if I don’t move forward or if I don’t get anywhere I still believe I already won.”
Zuniga’s penchant for performance runs deeper than her love of poetry. Zuniga has been interested in acting and performance since age 3 and has committed much of her life to theater, film acting and other performance arts. According to Zuniga’s father, Roberto Zuniga, her performing unearths a deeper side of herself.
“It reveals an interest in human nature, in expressing through performing and acting, I basically becoming an instrument of art,” Roberto said.
For Maria, Poetry Out Loud is another opportunity for her to pursue her interest in the performing arts.
“I love acting. It’s been a part of my life for a really long time, and it’s really something that moves me from day to day,” Maria said. “I’m involved in theater and film outside of school, and reciting poetry and becoming these poems is the equivalent to becoming a new character; it’s just getting under the skin of something else. I don’t think it’s fair that we’re confined to this one life and one body, so I think that this just gives me an opportunity to explore beyond what I am given.”
The extent of Maria’s accomplishment is just now resonating with her and her family, who went into the competition without a full comprehension of the valor of Poetry Out Loud.
“The feeling at the beginning [was] very proud of any success that any of your children have regarding school or extracurricular activities, as I learn about the size, of course this feeling grows more,” Roberto said.
Because of her win at the state championships for Poetry Out Loud, the Texas Senate honored Maria with a special resolution for her achievement. Maria was invited to a ceremony in Austin where she was honored on the Senate floor and met with Texas state senators and representatives.
Maria’s trip to the state capital was especially meaningful to her family, who are immigrants to America. For a family who has been speaking English for less than a decade, winning Poetry Out Loud was seen as an immense accomplishment.
“It was quite amazing to think that we were moving to the United States six years ago and there I was, with Maria, taking her to the state capital to be recognized by the Texas Senate on a state resolution,” Roberto said. “The feeling has evolved as this thing gains momentum.”
The National competition for Poetry Out Loud will be held in Washington D.C., where Maria with her sponsor, Coppell High School librarian and Poetry Out Loud organizer Lex Anne Seifert, will be put up. While there, Maria will have the opportunity the visit the National Mall and attend a special dinner for the competitors, where numerous celebrities associated with the competition are set to attend.
“We are hoping for her to, of course, win the national Poetry Out Loud champion, but we are amazed [by her state win], not surprised. We always knew that she was very talented, but this news has really been quite a trip,” Roberto said.
While Maria’s win provides numerous opportunities for herself, including a $20,000 scholarship if she wins Nationals, her success in the competition has also brought benefits to CHS.
“She also won $500 for our school [at the state competition], so that check is already here, and I will use that $500 to purchase poetry books for our school collection,” Seifert said.
Seifert, who began CHS’ involvement in Poetry Out Loud in 2010, hopes Maria’s win brings awareness to the competition and will get students more involved in future years.
“What I am hoping we will be able to do at Coppell High School is make this a school-wide event we will be able to open this up to everybody,” Seifert said. “What that does, is it encourages students and gets kids reading poetry, and that’s what the cool thing is, it gets kids back into poetry.”
Seifert stressed the importance of poetry in the lives of youth.
“It’s an art form that’s meant to be spoken,” Seifert said. “And I don’t know the reason why we don’t do it anymore, if I had the answer I could fix it, but that’s the reason we have this national Poetry Out Loud competition. It is to get kids back into poetry. And not just reading poetry, and not analyzing it for a school paper, or anything like that, but to really learn to appreciate the language of poetry, the sound of poetry, the way poetry communicates feeling and emotion. It’s just a great thing.”
Maria herself holds a similar view on the art form, attesting to its power to engage and move those who are aware of it. Maria’s passion for poetry and performing is one of the driving reasons for her success in Poetry Out Loud.
“It’s passion. When anybody can do something like that, it’s just something, it’s almost that god-given talent kind of thing. And I think she [Maria] has that,” Seifert said.
