A Pascack Valley freshman will represent the school at the regional Poetry Out Loud contest on Feb. 9 at Bergen Community College.

On Dec. 20, PV held its own Poetry Out Loud event during Pascack Period, with the winner, Ava Devincenzo, moving on to the next round.

At the regional competition, Devincenzo will recite three poems in three rounds. However, due to the number of participants, some regions cut students in the third round, so it is important for students to choose the order of their poems in a way that will make them stand out in order to move on to the final round.

There are a few rules the contestants must follow. The poem must be no longer than 25 lines, and one must be written prior to the 20th century. These two requirements can be met in a single poem.

About 20 English classes classes participated in the school competition, according to English supervisor Virena Rossi. Students each read a single poem before the panel of English teacher judges, who used the scoring guidelines from the Poetry Out Loud contest.

At the school level, the contestants only had to memorize and recite one poem. For this, Devincenzo selected “Time Does Not Bring Relief” by Edna St. Vincent Millay. She will recite the same one, in addition to “Rain” by Kazim Ali and “Serenade” by Mary Weston Fordham.

Devincenzo said that memorizing the poems was “very difficult and it is still a work in progress.”

She is an actress and said that memorizing the poem is harder than memorizing lines.

Divincenzo’s favorite poem she will be reciting is the one by Millay.

“I picked poems I can relate to,” she said, “and I like this one the best.”