POET: Zurie Joseph’s love of poetry drove her to perform in a poetry reading competition.
By Ashley Gore, Staff Writer
As a young girl, Zurie Joseph’s (9) mother read her a book every night. Curled up under her sheets in the warm comfort of her childhood bedroom, Joseph drifted off to sleep to the enchanting words of a variety of authors. While these stories may have merely seemed entertaining at the time, they expanded her vocabulary and instilled in her a passion for the written word.
Joseph’s elementary school, Hawarden Hills Academy, offered more than just basic math and language arts courses. It gave students the opportunity to take classes in which they studied and learned different types of poetry. Joseph’s love of books led her to take these courses, which inspired her to begin writing poetry herself. “I started getting passionate about writing poems in middle school when we were asked to submit poems in a contest to give to veterans for Veterans’ Day, and my poems won,” Joseph said. For three consecutive years she won this contest, her talent and passion soaring above the competition.
Transitioning from middle school to high school can cause a shift in passions and hobbies, but Joseph continues to cherish and nurture her love of poetry, as seen in her recent participation in the Poetry Out Loud poetry reading contest. Due to her creative and literary prowess, her teachers nominated her to compete. She read—or rather, performed—“Barter” by Sara Teasdale and “At the New Year” by Kenneth Patchen. Although she did not win, Joseph gave an exceptional performance—extremely admirable considering she heard about the contest only two days prior. “I literally had less than twenty-four hours to memorize two massive poems, and I was stressed out every moment of the day,” Joseph recalled.
Joseph’s background in acting greatly aided her performance. She acted in Riverside Children’s Theatre productions for seven years. “The experience not only helped me to be able to talk publicly, but also to articulate and pronounce words clearly,” Joseph said.
While Joseph does not plan to turn her passion for writing into a career—she hopes to go into architecture and graphic design—she feels that she will enjoy writing on the side in the future.
Growing up, Joseph loved poet Alice Walker, who once said, “Don’t wait around for other people to be happy for you. Any happiness you get you’ve got to make yourself.” Joseph surely seems to be taking her happiness into her own hands, and this young poet, actress and Poly Bear has a bright future ahead. “It meant a lot to me to get the opportunity to represent Poly in a contest that I hold so close to my heart,” Joseph said.