One of the BHS students has made it to the Poetry Out Loud State competition through their strong voice and confidence. Freshman Tehya Burnham has placed 3rd at a poetry contest. Due to one person deciding to back out of the competition, she made it to State.

“I got third place and the top two moved up, but the first guy couldn’t go,” She said. “So for me, I don’t feel like I shouldn’t be going because I made third, but at the same time, it’s like I qualified technically, so it’s a mix of feelings.”

At the state composition, she will be reading the same two poems in Topeka at Washburn University. The first poem she read was “Two Young Dancing Girl” by Elsa Giblow, and the second was “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke, both with great themes and ideas.

“The first poem is sentimental, and you’re going to grow up, and it’s not gonna be the best, so enjoy life now,” she said. “The second (My Papa’s Waltz) was like an innocent child, and the poem is not the happiest because the dad was not a good person. So it was like realizing as a kid you don’t understand, but as you grow up you hold that resentment.”

Burnham chose these poems because she connected to them on a level slightly deeper than most people can. 

“I loved the idea of the first poem that as a little kid you have these ideas, and you are sort of shadowed from it, but as an adult you see how things work,” she said. “The second, I originally thought of it as a sentimental moment between the dad and kid, but when I read it again, I saw it was like an abusive and toxic relationship, which I connected to myself.”

Her teacher, Michelle Kirk, saw just how much thought Burnham had put into picking poems. Kirk was also very excited and expressive when talking about how well Burnham had done, considering her disadvantage. 

“When she competed as a freshman from a smaller school, the placement that she got at the Regional 1 Contest was amazing because they were all older than she was from a school triple the size.” She said, “It was exciting to know that even though it was her first time doing that kind of competition, she showed up strongly, and I am so proud of her.”