Warning: Undefined array key "file" in /home/danicasa/252section1.classroomcommons.org/wp-includes/media.php on line 1749
By Chloe Fiore Del Vecchio
I have chosen to do my found poem on the article “raped, pregnant, and denied a lifesaving abortion-all at 10 years old” by Debbie Sharnak. The article focuses on this 10-year-old girl in Paraguay who was brought to the hospital with stomach pains. The doctors quickly realized that this discomfort was due to the fact that she was 21 weeks pregnant. This pregnancy was a result of having been raped by her stepfather. As I continued to work on this poem, I felt strong feelings such anger and rage over this violation of natural human rights. How even after such horrific circumstances she is denied the rights to her own body which will only make her face more horrific circumstance, ones that a ten-year-old girl should never face. She should be the one playing with dolls not providing her child with them. Not that I am necessarily pro-abortion, but I do believe that women should have the right to do what she chooses with her own body. Whether you are pro-life or pro-abortion you can clearly see that especially in this case it is essential for there to be exceptions. You cannot expect a ten-year-old to be a mother especially after being this innocent victim, these are not the problems anyone in adolescent should have to endure. At some point you have to ask yourself will saving the life of the fetus prove to do more harm than good, is it worth it for both of the mom and fetus’s sakes? What subsequent life could a ten-year old provide for herself let alone provide for a child, a child is incapable of raising a child. Not only is she unfit to mother a child but this pregnancy itself is high risk for someone at such a young age which can put the ten-year old’s life in jeopardy. This little girl is forced to live with this grief whilst also having to deal with an unwanted pregnancy.
As for my method of creating my poem, I started with taking the entire article and copy and pasting it into a word document. From there I proceeded to go through and delete the words I perceived as unnecessary to my found poem. I took inspiration from Zong!, I went through and used different techniques such as spacing, different fonts, different text sizes, italics, and underlining. I used all these techniques to shed light on particular parts of the poem. While creating this poem I used different techniques for different reasons. For example, I used underling for mostly the main points. I ended up making words I saw as powerful or deep larger. I also used different spacing mostly to break up different thoughts or ideas. Creating this poem definitely made me realize how much effort M. NourbeSe Phillip put into each and every page in Zong! It also made me realize just how much more powerful what’s not on the page or what else is on the page is besides the actual words.
Hi there Chloe I really enjoyed your poem! The part of you changing your fonts, underlining, and even the color of the most violent word in your poem was an ingenious way to convey your meaning without having to split up your words as much. The story you picked also was very interesting, having such a distinct breach of human rights for a child. Even towards the end of your poem though I don’t know if this was intentional, I saw the line “Bring the perpetrator to justice” underlined and thought it looked crossed out. Almost as if that line was an expression of an idea that would never come to fruition. Overall, modeling your poem after the book Zong! gave your poem a unique look and provided multiple avenues for you to express your intended meanings without having to voice it directly.