“It was a little intimidating,” McKenna admitted.
Despite the intimidation factor of being the youngest of eight high school students looking to advance in the competition, McKenna defeated his older opponents to move on to the state level of Poetry Out Loud, which will take place March 16.
The national Poetry Out Loud competition begins at the local level, with high school students competing for the top two spots. The two finalists then participate at the regional level, which in the Capital Region consisted of four high schools in the area and their respective eight students. The regional competition was then narrowed down to one spot, given to McKenna for his readings of “Cartoon Physics, part 1” by Nick Flynn and "When Kingfishers Catch Fire" by Gerard Manley Hopkins.
McKenna said he was surprised he won at the high school level as a freshman, and surprised again to learn he had won the regional level.
“I wasn’t expecting to win regionals,” McKenna said. “At that point I didn’t really care whether or not I won—I was just happy to be there as a freshman and to be enjoying it. I thought that [Saratoga Springs runner-up] Allen Anderson and another student both did a really good job, and I was surprised to win but really happy.”
McKenna, who comes from a family of relatives familiar with being onstage—his grandfather was a production designer in Hollywood, and both of his parents have acting experience—said he feels very comfortable on stage.
“I love speaking and I love being up on stage—it’s a love for acting that has been passed on to me from my family,” McKenna said. “With [the recitation of] my first poem, ‘When Kingfishers Catch Fire,’ I just felt it—I’ve had that experience with acting before where you’re so into it that you completely lose yourself in the monologue or song, and I’d never had that experience with poetry before, and this was my first time with that so it was just an awesome feeling.”
In order to prepare for the state level of the competition, McKenna said he has been practicing reciting his poems very consistently.
“I’ll recite them to myself pretty much constantly, but I actually sit down and recite it to myself in a mirror or to my parents every few days or so,” McKenna said.
Asked how he would feel if he won at the state level to continue to the national finals, McKenna took a long pause.
“Just the fact that I’m going to state is overwhelming—if I ended up winning state, I don’t know what I would do,” he said with a laugh. “My dad did say he would come to Washington with me, though.”
If McKenna does progress to the national finals, he will get to travel to Washington D.C. April 28-30 with the other 52 finalists (Puerto Rico is also included in the competition) to vie for one of the top three spots, all of which come with monetary prizes. The third-place will receive $5,000, second-place $10,000 and first-place $20,000. In addition, finalists that place fourth to ninth place will receive $1,000 and $500 designated to their schools to buy poetry books.
At the state competition next week, McKenna will again recite his two previous poems, but has readied a third “tie-breaker” poem to be recited if he makes it into the final third round.
“It’s a very Shakespearean poem—it’s written by an older poet, John Dunn, and it has that old English feel to it,” McKenna explained. “It’s a much harder poem reciting-wise than the others and it’s very long, so I’m a little nervous, but I also feel like that could be something that could push me ahead of everyone else if I nail it.”
Though McKenna would like to advance to the national finals, he is ready to just sit back and enjoy his experience participating in the competition.
“I’ve never participated in a competition like this and it’s an awesome experience,” McKenna said. “I’m nervous [for state], but I’m more excited—at this point, even more so than I was at regionals. I don’t care what happens, I’m just going to have a blast and read my poems.”
To learn more about the Poetry Out Loud competition, visit www.poetryoutloud.org.
