CLK High School Freshman Elli Harju will travel to Lansing to take place in the Poetry Out Loud State Finals Saturday. She will recite “Grief” by Elizabeth Barrett Browning and “Oranges” by Roisin Kelly. Harju will be judged on her performance and memory of the two poems. (Ben Garbacz/Daily Mining Gazette)

CALUMET — Freshman Elli Harju of CLK High School will participate in the 2025 Poetry Out Loud State Finals Saturday in Lansing.

The competition is conducted through the Michigan Humanities and Michigan Arts and Culture Council and presented in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts and Poetry Foundation. 2025 will mark the 20th anniversary of the event.

Harju will join 26 other students from across the state to recite poetry from memory while applying a performance of emotion tied to the words in the poem.

Contestants will be judged by a panel of five on physical presence, voice and articulation, interpretation, evidence of understanding the poem, overall performance and accuracy.

Harju was the school champion at Calumet and will be reciting the same poems in Lansing that won her the local title. She selected two poems from a provided list of one poem that is 20 lines or less and a poem that is pre-20th century. The two poems Harju will recite are “Grief” by Elizabeth Barrett Browning and “Oranges” by Roisin Kelly.

“Grief is about what true grief is like, and how it differentiates from those who fake [their] grief,” Harju explained. “I believe her (Browning’s) brother died at a young age, and she wrote many poems about him. Oranges uses the symbolism of an orange to finding your true love in your life.”

Harju said she is able to relate to both poems in a way, but has to keep in mind the original intent of the writers in order to find the most accurate way to portray the emotion attached to the words and perform the messages that were intended.

Harju says she has a passion for the humanities and is very interested in any form of art in which an individual can express his or her emotions into an activity or piece. She said she wants to continue in this field and the competition is a way for her to begin exploring it in a performative way.

“I’ve always enjoyed reading in front of people,” Harju said. “I’m good at public speaking, and I also have a love for theatre, and I really love just using expression in my voice and memorizing things or citing them and making them my own. And I definitely want to do a lot more of this. Now that I’m getting a feel for this, I really, really love this.”

Harju’s passion comes through much of what she is exploring as a high school student. CLK’s Julie Antilla, who teaches English and Health, believes Harju demonstrates some of the best qualities of Calumet High School.

“We have that sisu, we have that spirit of just hard work and dedication,” Antilla said. “And I think she represents that. I think she also represents how special this place is, and the people that are up here are also. And I think she will bring that down there with her. It’s really an awesome opportunity for everybody to see that we also have a fantastic arts and humanities side of us as well.”

In Lansing, the competition will come down to four finalists. They will perform a third poem. If she is one of the final four, Harju will perform “Invictus” by William Ernest Henleys.

The champion will receive a $1,000 award and move on to compete in the national finals in Washington D.C. May 5 – 7.