My found poem is based off of a true event that happened in late December of the year 1996. The death of JonBonet Ramsey was a huge headliner during this time because she was found and killed in her own home the day after Christmas. The article I had found and used as my poem was published on January 1st, 1997 by the New York Times. This article describes in great lengths what had happened and had most of the key insights into the event.
I used this article because it has always been a topic that has made me upset. JonBonet was a 6-year-old girl, who “had everything” and whose life was taken way too soon. The mystery behind this case still lingers today due to the fact that the killer has still not been found. Many people tend to believe that someone of the family or a friend of the family had a role in her murder but no evidence to back it up, just conspiracies.
With this article, I initially used white out to get rid of words that did not have much of a significant role to the event. After whiting out the words, I then printed out another copy of the article and cut out the words that I left on the first copy. Then, I reorganized some but not all of the words to present them in a way that would be of better understanding to the reader and demonstrate the sadness and mystery of this murder case. Unlike Philip in her found poem, ZONG!, I wanted the readers to fully understand the case rather than have some misunderstanding and confusion.
Unlike most found poems, at least the ones we have seen in ZONG!, this found poem has barely any blank space due to the empowering message the words I had collected give to the poem. I tried my best to create a simpler version but I felt that the words I had chosen needed to stay in the work rather than tossed out.
