Mt. D. Senior Takes Second Place in State Poetry Contest

 For someone who doesn’t like public speaking, Mark Reifenheiser sure can fake it.  

The 18-year-old senior came in second in last week’s statewide Poetry Out Loud competition in Sacramento.

The Poetry Out Loud program, directed by the California Arts Council for the sixth year in a row, draws more than 40,000 participants from 34 California counties.  Contestants pick a series of poems and recite them in front of judges.

Reifenheiser actually came in second in Contra Costa County competition put on by the Arts & Culture Commission, but earned the trip to the state finals when the first-place winner had a conflict with the dates.  

And Reifenheiser took charge, quite literally. His recitation of Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s “Charge of the Light Brigade” was one of the best she’s ever heard, said Kristin Margolis, who manages Poetry Out Loud for California.  

Not bad for a guy who says he really wasn’t that interested in poetry until he got to high school. However, Reifenheiser says that all changed his junior and senior years, when he took English with Daniel Reynolds. “Mr. Reynolds has been a great influence on me,” he says.  

“Once you understand a poem’s meaning, it gives you a whole new understanding and appreciation for that poem.”  

Reifenheiser says he dabbles in writing poetry, but “it’s not a very prominent part of my life.  

“And I am sooooo not into public speaking.”  

He could have fooled the judges.  

Reifenheiser says he plans to attend Diablo Valley College next year, and then transfer to UC Berkeley or San Francisco State.  

Robert Marchand, a senior at Pacific Grove High School in Monterey, won the competition, and will represent California in the national Poetry Out Loud finals in Washington, D.C., in April. Phebe Hong from Sonoma County, a junior at Santa Rosa High School, placed third.