I Don't Know How to Start Talking About It

Abstract

This article presents five poems constructed from interviews conducted with five women about their sexual experiences as college students, as well as one poem written by the first author about her own experience. Young women were asked about confusing, problematic, and shameful sexual experiences. The Listening/Reading Guide, a feminist method, was used to identify segments of each interview that were then arranged in poetic form. Poetry was used as an evocative means to present information that does not have a traditional narrative structure. These poems are structured to convey the difficulties inherent in understanding and talking about these experiences. Current discourses of sexual assault and recovery are insufficient for understanding and meaning making in these cases.