For the second year in 2023, the Rural Oklahoma Museum of Poetry hosted a regional contest for Poetry Out Loud in the Northeast Oklahoma area. Any 9th-12th grade student in the NE OK region whose school was not conducting the program could participate through ROMP. Home-schooled students in the region could also participate.
Poetry Out Loud is a wonderful program that encourages teenagers to find poems that have meaning for them, learn them by heart, and perform them in competition. The poems are all selected from the Poetry Out Loud anthology and website.
The ROMP Regional Contest was held Monday, January 23, 2023, at 6:00 p.m. at the VFW Hall, in Locust Grove. The winner of this contest goes on to the state competition in Edmond in March.
UPDATE: Our winner Jamie Smothers won Runner-Up at the state competition this year!
2023 Winner: Jamie Smothers, Oologah High School

2022 Winners
The winner of our contest, Dallas Green, Oologah High School, went to the state contest on March 8, 2022, in Edmond. The national competition was April 25-27, 2022, in Washington, D.C.
Read more about the program and the poems at Poetry Out Loud. ROMP will sponsor this contest yearly.