LAKEPORT, Calif. — On a bright Sunday in the last days of January, the students of Lake County shared their voices through the beauty and power of poetry.

The Soper-Reese Theatre resonated with dynamic recitations by the finalists of Lake County’s annual Poetry Out Loud competition, a national arts program that encourages the study of poetry and culminates in a live, juried recitation event.

The competition was created by the National Endowment for the Arts and The Poetry Foundation and has been proudly hosted for over a decade by the Lake County Arts Council in partnership supported by a grant from the California Arts Council.

This year, four students represented the best of the best from their high schools: Madelin Muniz-Espinoza, Clear Lake High School; David Wilkes, Kelseyville High School; Jocelyn Knapp, Lower Lake High School; and Lily Morita, Middletown High School.

Each of these amazing students had already competed and won first place in the competition at their individual school levels and came to the county level finals with two full length poems memorized for performance.

They had spent weeks studying, memorizing and rehearsing each piece with adult performance coaches Tim Barnes (Clear Lake High School), John Tomlinson (Kelseyville and Lower Lake High Schools) and Michele Krueger (Middletown High School).

The students read in rounds, each presenting one poem per round.

The audience, judges and the Master of Ceremonies Laura McAndrews Sammel, treasurer and a member of the Board of Directors of the Lake County Arts Council, were often moved to tears by the depth of passion and understanding in the students’ poetic delivery.

Jordan O’Halloran was the coordinator of this year’s Poetry Out Loud competition and also had the daunting task of tallying the scores of the tight competition.

She gathered a group of local poets and educators to serve as judges: Lake County Poet Laureate Emeritus Richard Schmidt, artist, writer and teacher Diana Liebe Schmidt, poet and retired educator Pamela Bordisso, political poet and theatrical artist Beulah Vega and poet Brenda Yeager.

In between the students’ recitations, as O’Halloran was tallying the scores, the poet judges read a stunning and diverse array of their original work.

Then, the performances culminated with an exquisite reading by Georgina Marie Guardado, the current Lake County Poet Laureate, who spoke of how moved she was by the caliber of student performances. She honored the students and audience with a reading of her own original work and a poem by the current National Poet Laureate, Ada Limon.

After a tight competition of deeply inspiring recitations, Lily Morita of Middletown High School took first place with her soulful and insightful performances of “Listening In Deep Space,” by Diane Thiel and “Backdrop Addresses Cowboy,” by Margaret Atwood. She will move on to the next level of Poetry Out Loud’s California State final competition in Sacramento.

David Wilkes of Kelseyville High School took second place and will be the backup competitor at Sacramento if Morita should find herself unable to attend.

Madelin Muniz-Espinoza of Clear Lake High School won third place and Jocelyn Knapp of Lower Lake High School was the runner up.

Congratulations and best of luck in Sacramento (and beyond!) to Lily Morita and to all of the student competitors who have moved us with their stunning performances to understand how truly poetry can help us find beauty “when we find each other.”