Butgereit, Thompson excel in Poetry Out Loud at Bob Jones

MADISON – Mary Butgereit and Khadijah Thompson rated top honors in Poetry Out Loud at Bob Jones High School.

Mary Butgereit, at left, and Khadijah Thompson show their excitement at winning first place in Poetry Out Loud at Bob Jones High School. (PHOTO / LEIGH BUTGEREIT)

In the contest, they both won first place — Butgereit for “Original Poetry” and Thompson for “Anthology Recitation.”

“Poetry is ancient but not outdated,” Butgereit said. “Poetry is mostly emotion, full of metaphors and comparisons so others will understand on a different level.”

In her poem “Instructions for Someday,” Butgereit compares a relationship to repair instructions for a machine. “Someone may not know what it’s like to return to a broken friendship, but they’ll understand what it’s like to sit down at a long-forgotten project and try to repair it.”

Butgereit’s “Instructions for Someday” states “… if any beautiful parts remain/it would only be a reminder that we left this machine stalled out on the side of nowhere.” In “Just Stop,” she writes “… he casually dropped his words into the coffee/stirring it with an artificial sweetness/and coating it with cream/to obscure the darkness.”

She believes poetry “shines an entirely new light on the subject.” Mary’s parents are Drew and Leigh Butgereit.

Thompson also won in Poetry Out Loud last year. She likes her poetry style “because (the poems) usually are more modern and fun to recite. I like to challenge myself and see how interested I can get an audience to become in what I’m saying.”

Many people, especially teenagers, “consider poetry old and stuffy. But poetry can be a lot more than that if you understand it,” Thompson said.

For the recitation category, Thompson chose a poem to recite as written and was judged on vocal execution. Students can only choose poems on the Poetry Out Loud website, ranging from pre-20th century works to Maya Angelou.

From “Sestina: Like” by A.E. Stallings, Thompson recited “‘But, like, he doesn’t get it! Like, you know? He’s like, ‘It’s all okay.’ Like, I don’t even like him anymore. Whatever.'”

She works an intern chef at The Eaves Restaurant. Khadijah’s parents are Javier and Tesha Thompson.