And a child did lead the readers

And the children shall lead them. That’s either from the New Testament or from a “Star Trek” episode.

But it proved true Saturday at Get Lit! when, opening the Evening of Poetry, Sandpoint High School junior Hannah Vogel gave a rousing reading of her two-time-award-winning poem “Praise Be” (at least that’s what my notes say, and it is the phrase that she repeated over and over).

After one false start – asked for, and given, because she said she was nervous about speaking before such a big crowd at the Bing Crosby Theater – Vogel showed most other poets how to read.

Having memorized her poem, Vogel maintained eye contact with her 170 or so listeners. And she performed it with an energy that, like any good poetry-slam winner (“Praise Be” won both the Sandpoint Poetry Slam and the Get Lit! Teen Poetry Slam), made the words seemingly jump off the page.

It was a good enough performance to move even a Vulcan to tears.