Every year, Morris Hills holds an annual Poetry Out Loud (POL) competition. This year, the competition was held on January 13th, 2026 during block four with the winner being Leah Thomas. The competition is held within the United States, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, and the District of Columbia. But the competition itself is based on recitation, which means that the contestants participating within the competition have to memorize a poem that comes from an anthology that POL puts out that the contestants have to commit to memorizing, understanding, and reciting three different poems in front of the audience.

But how does POL exactly work? “It works in different stages”, says Mr. Diaz who is in charge of the competition. “The very first stage is the school wide stage where anybody that is interested can come, memorize a poem, and then compete on that day, which we had five kids come out and compete. Then we have a panel of judges who scored them and we have a winner that day, which was Leah”, Mr. Diaz adds. “Then, she goes on to the regional competition, which happened on Monday, February 2nd, where she’ll be doing the same exact thing. Citing the poems, all three of them in front of the panel judges and basically the winners of the other schools within region four are also going to be there. Then from there, two winners will be selected to go represent New Jersey in the state competition and then one student will win that round and represent all of New Jersey and then the same thing. So, there will be about 54 kids that will come together in March for the nationwide competition”, Mr. Diaz finishes off with.

The POL competition is an exciting way to show off creativity and interpretation when it comes to reading different poems. If interested in next year’s competition, email Mr. Diaz for more information and get a chance to win $20,000!