Some of the kids at Jackson High approach the microphone as if it were a poisonous snake.

Not Jalisa Howard. The 17-year-old senior plucks it from the stand, shakes the wire loose, looks her audience in the eyes and fires away:

"i wanta say just gotta say something"

She turns and switches hands:

"bout those beautiful beautiful beautiful" —- another turn, and she tosses a line over her shoulder:

"outasight black men"!

A smiling sigh of "You go girl!" rolls out from the onlookers, now comfortably in the performer's hand.

This 27-line gem of a poem, "Beautiful Black Men," looks handsome on the page. But the words from Southern poet Nikki Giovanni come alive in Howard's voice and grow into something more: Music, dance, street sounds, a 20-second film. That is the magic of recited verse, a magic being conjured again and again around the country this spring during the final weeks of the recitation contest called Poetry Out Loud.

Once the province of musty 19th-century pedagogy, poetry reciting is gaining favor and has drawn more than 200,000 participants into this competition.

Today, champions from at least 20 Georgia high schools are convening in Atlanta at the Midtown headquarters of Georgia Public Broadcasting to compete for a chance to represent Georgia in the Poetry Out Loud national finals next month. Atlanta writer Anthony Grooms will host the Georgia contest administered by the Margaret Mitchell House and the Georgia Council for the Arts.

'An energizing activity'

The competition, now in its third year, is sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Chicago-based Poetry Foundation, and offers $50,000 in scholarship prizes.

"I started teaching in 1983, and I have never been a part of such an energizing activity for poetry in my career," said Lori Durham, an English teacher at Camden County High School in South Georgia. "As each child spoke, you could feel the strength and power of those words . . ."

About 140 students vied for a chance to represent Camden High, which is in Kingsland, on the Florida line. "We had kids begging us to please let them stay until the next round to see who the winner was," said Durham. "At the end they were applauding, they stood up, they cheered."

Alex Chavis, a junior with experience singing gospel, delivered renditions of Maya Angelou's "Still I Rise" and "Mother to Son" by Langston Hughes to win the school-wide contest. For diversity's sake, he has since added "Dover Beach" from Matthew Arnold, a 19th-century poet and essayist.

Contestants must have three poems memorized for the state trials; the third serves as a backup in case a tie requires a rhyme-off.

"Yes, I'm nervous," Chavis said Friday, getting ready to pack for the six-hour drive, "but I hope to get over that, because I really want to go to nationals."

More than 600 poems are included in the canon that competitors can choose from; none is longer than 60 lines, some are as short as a dozen. Authors range from John Donne to Georgia laureate David Bottoms, and more are added every year.

Many students steer toward the familiar; others embrace the antique. At Jackson High School, about an hour south of Atlanta, Howard's performance is followed by a recitation of Sara Teasdale's 1924 poem, "Let It Be Forgotten," by Jalika Warren.

Slow, measured, economical, Warren underplays the poem, which she delivers in a British accent.

Applause comes in the form of vigorous finger-snapping. Teacher Paul White coached the kids to adopt this hipster tradition, in honor of that spoken-word nirvana, Greenwich Village. "Scary!" fellow contestant Howard says under her breath.

Timing seems right

Students in decades past were routinely required to memorize poems and recite them in class. The practice fell out of favor in the 1960s, but Poetry Out Loud adherents hope for a comeback.

"This is going back to the roots of the early schoolhouse," said English teacher Durham, adding that memorization provides a valuable "wiring" of the brain.

This could be the right time. Hip-hop music promotes memorization of lyrics that can run into the hundreds of words. Performance art has been democratized by YouTube and poetry slams.

"I don't know whether it's the 'American Idol' culture we live in, or the fact that digital media is everywhere and you can record everything, but it makes kids more ready to perform," said Stephen Young of the sponsoring Poetry Foundation.

The foundation, once a small literary magazine, now administers a $200 million gift made by the poetry-loving heir to a pharmaceuticals fortune, and contributes more than $500,000 a year to Poetry Out Loud.

A dramatic ending

Most Georgia competitors will receive gas money to help them get to Atlanta this weekend, including the winner of the down-to-the-wire contest in Jackson.

The evenly matched Jalisa and Jalika, tied in points after Thursday's contest, each memorized a new poem and competed again Friday morning. Jalika Warren, of the British accent, won, with a recital of "Sadie and Maud" by Gwendolyn Brooks. The message in that poem, she says: "Live life to its fullest; do what makes you happy."

RULES OF RECITING

In rating a recitation, Poetry Out Loud judges pay attention to these key categories:

> Physical presence: Use good posture and be attentive. Look confident. Engage your audience. Look them in the eye.

> Voice and articulation: Project. Take your time. Speak to the back row.

> Appropriateness of dramatization: Don't act out the poem. You are the vessel; let the poem do the talking.

> Level of difficulty: Judges award extra points for longer poems and poems with complex language and meaning.

> Understanding: If you don't understand the poem, the judges will know.

> Accuracy: Every word counts. A perfect reading earns an extra 8 points.

Source: www.poetryoutloud.org

ALSO COMING UP

April is the coolest month, if you love poetry.

In the next several weeks, nationally known poets will read and present workshops around the state, celebrating National Poetry Month. Among them:

> Agnes Scott College Writers Festival. Writers Martin Espada, Ruben Martinez and 1999 Agnes Scott graduate Gillian Lee-Fong Farris bring a blend of Latin and Caribbean influences to the Decatur college's annual event March 27-28. Information: www.agnesscott.edu.

> A Fine Excess: A Three-Day Celebration of Poetry. Some of the country's most celebrated poets, including two former U.S. poet laureates, will gather at Emory University on April 2-4. Distinguished American poets Richard Wilbur, Mark Strand and W.D. Snodgrass will give public readings. Information: marbl.library.emory.edu.

> Black Poets Lean South: A Cave Canem Symposium. The University of Georgia will celebrate the diversity of African-American literature on April 3 from 11 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. in the UGA Chapel in Athens. The day will feature six award-winning poets, including Cornelius Eady and Toi Derricotte. Information: www.uga.edu (search "events").

—- Bo Emerson

IF YOU GO

> Poetry Out Loud state finals, 2 p.m. today. Georgia Public Broadcasting studios, 260 14th Street NW, Atlanta. Free; open to the public (limited seating).