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This is Owl Matthews’ Verselandia! to lose.
When Literary Arts’ citywide youth poetry slam comes to the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall on Thursday, April 30, Matthews, 18, will have their last shot at the championship title. They came in second last spring to Qiana Woods of Parkrose High School, a powerhouse senior who won the slam two years in a row. With Woods now out of the mix, the field is clear.
But first, Matthews has to get past the other poets at Cleveland High School. And despite Matthews’ strong showing on the Schnitz stage last year, clinching a CHS spot was no easy task at the schoolwide slam the evening of April 8.
In Cleveland’s black box theater in the soon-to-be-demolished Southeast Portland high school, Matthews competed against nine other teenagers for three slots to go to the Schnitz: First and second place will perform, third will be an alternate. The dozen or so high schools in Verselandia! have held similar competitions, organized by the school librarian.
As the poets, judges and parents milled about the theater, Matthews was caffeine incarnate, speaking quickly, greeting friends and supporters with hugs, and squeezing a stress cube in anticipation of delivering their first poem. They wore rainbow earrings, a T-shirt that said “No problem” and a blond pixie haircut.
Matthews first got interested in slam poetry in seventh grade when they heard Amanda Gorman perform “Earthrise.”
“I did not know words could make you feel that way,” they said. “It was incredible.”
They wrote their first spoken-word poem freshman year of high school. The poem that won second place at Verselandia! last spring was about chef Sarah Pliner being killed in front of Cleveland while riding her bike to work in 2022.
Matthews takes three performing arts classes at CHS—theater, band and choir—and is racking up senior year accomplishments. This morning, Cleveland’s wind ensemble won the Portland Interscholastic League title; Matthews plays bassoon. They just wrapped up the spring play Eurydice; Matthews played Eurydice. In the fall, Matthews will go to Washington State University to study to become a veterinarian. This is it.
Their first poem was “Manners.” It’s about gender expectations, and the page in their hand shook with intensity by the time the three-minute poem hit its apex.
The minute I learned to say ‘no,’ I learned to say ‘please.’
Shake hands, be a good girl
‘Yes sir,’ I beamed with pride,
Until, she and her didn’t feel right inside
But—I came out!
All better, right?
They/them!
I was clear, this is who I am!
But the she/hers kept coming
They keep coming
And for every ‘they’ that comes my way
Ten people look at my face and see girl
Other poets wrote about their mother’s hospitalization, glow sticks, an old chestnut tree in their front yard, and more. Slam poetry is a unique mix of performance and writing—closer to rapping than writing a book—and the best poets have honed skills in both. The most gorgeous lines of verse mean nothing if the poet stands at center stage and mumbles; all drama with no rhyme structure or theme will feel hollow.
Matthews’ scores out of 10—9.3, 9.3, 9.8, 9.5—easily ushered them into the second round of six poets. The other front-runner was senior Alida Shi Lyons, co-founder with Matthews of Cleveland’s poetry club who also represented the school at Verselandia! in 2025.
During a 10-minute cookie break between rounds, Matthews was elated with their performance.
“I’m so, so happy with it! I love that poem,” Matthews said. “I shook so much. I always forget how much I shake when I do poetry.”
In the next round, Shi Lyons’ poem used a lily dissection in biology class as an extended metaphor (“everything is more beautiful/when it is unraveling”) and brought down the house.
“Let’s go! Let’s go! I’m so proud of you! Yes, Alida!” Matthews cheered from the front row.
(“If only this group were a little more supportive of each other,” said English teacher and slam emcee Eric Levine, wryly. “But what are you going to do?” Verselandia! is Levine’s favorite thing that happens at CHS every year, he said.)
Matthews responded with their second poem, “Lucky,” about their mother.
My mama is the world to me
Literally, she pried it from the fingertips of God to cup it in my hands
She is stretched so thin but she still gives me herself,
Gives me everything
Because, to me, my mama is everything,
That’s not hyperbole.
Because of her, I am more loved than anyone deserves to be
I am so lucky to know her, to be loved by one as kind as her, as strong
She is so strong
Carries herself like she knows she can face lions
The judges tallied the scores. Shi Lyons came in first and Matthews took second; one-tenth of a point separated them. The third-place alternate spot went to another senior, Leo Fox, who is here for their first time. The three laughed and hugged—it was more like a full-body collapse into each other—and posed for pictures onstage.
Cleveland librarian Heather Hornor is excited to see Matthews and Shi Lyons represent CHS for the second year running, going up against students from throughout Portland and east county.
“They both are performers at heart,” Hornor says. “They enjoy sharing their art with others and it’s a really lovely way for them to show the whole entire city just how cool my Cleveland students are.”
GO: Verselandia! at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, 1037 SW Broadway, 503-227-2583, literary-arts.org/event/verselandia-youth-poetry-slam-championship-2026. 7–9:30 pm Thursday, April 30. $25–$70, free for youth under 17.
