For my found poem, I decided to take the last paragraph of Brock Turner’s father’s statement to the judge. I’m sure we all know the backstory of this event, and how horrific it was, not only for the victim but for people who had been raped and were hoping for a fair trial.
In creating this poem, I chose the last paragraph as it was the part that I think bothered me the most. For something this dark and heavy, I felt that one small paragraph would suffice. Cutting and pasting in different sequences didn’t feel right to me, not when I had his words right there just waiting to be highlighted or redacted. So many of his words align with the idea that we live in a rape-culture. I wanted to keep the words in the order that Dan Turner put them in. They are his words, but I wanted to block out all the fluff to get to the real message underneath… for all the victims and to point out the flaws in our society when it comes to rape.
Really love this, Paige! I had no idea what this was from when I first read it, but it immediately took on the voice of a survivor. It is so moving that you were able to take the defensive words of the father of a monster and shifted them to seemingly be the statements of a survivor. The one like that I really love is “I was always…steak to grill…his favorite snack.” This line helps to reveal rapists as the predators that they are, and implies that they view victims as nothing more than meat. Very powerful. Great job!!!
I LOVE THIS! The way that you changed the letter from his father into something so powerful and truthful (rather than his father’s words). Just blacking out a few words of his father’s letter to reveal the truth of Brock Turner’s rapist actions really shows how guilty he is. Without reading your post underneath I could have even thought this was from the victim. This was amazing.