Poetic Logic - January 10, 2008 - Support Central Florida Public Media

Poetic Logic - January 10, 2008
Thursday, January 10, 2008
By: Sara Schlossman

Sara talks with poet - and child abuse survivor - Jose Acosta

audio_icon_pos Click Here to Listen Online

Jose Acosta is determined to not be silent about child abuse because the child-victim’s voice is what every abuser is determined to extinguish, even when the victim lives on. Acosta’s two collections of poetry, Life Passion & Patriotism, and From Fear to Hope & Back Again are revealing as he looks at his experience from this side of adulthood and with his perfect recall of a child’s feelings and fears.

In conversation he’s open about these experiences despite a continuing sensitivity to the egregious violation of trust and boundary. While Acosta lives his life at perfect pitch and with the discipline you’d expect from someone with a successful career in the military for almost 20 years, you do get the sense that there’s something shadowy beneath the surface, something that he’ll eventually get around to letting you know whether through one of his poetry readings around town, or in conversation if it goes in that direction.

I wrote to Jose and asked him to expand on an answer he gave during our recorded interview. The question was: What else do you want us to know about child abuse. The answer was: It lasts forever. I want to share Jose’s further comments here, in keeping with saying what needs to be said, giving voice to what wants to get out:

Once you have been abused, it lasts a lifetime. There is no expiration
date to memories or the pain they bring. What I believe many courts and
people do not understand is that you carry those memories for life and
they play an important factor in the person you become.

Some may take [the memories] to their graves and never tell anyone for various reasons. Others may be overwhelmed and never be able to cope with life in a normal way. Some fight it and let the anger drive them to become productive in life
and even help others. Either way you are a victim for life.

I have spoken to criminals, officers of the law, social services personnel,
lawyers, doctors, and even military personnel that have shared with me
their experiences relating to child abuse. So many silent people. Their
silence is deafening. I attended a couple of therapy sessions on this
subject. One therapist kept asking me questions and as I gave more
details I felt frightened as if I was returning to those days and I was
allowing that child to come forth. The therapist himself stopped the
session and I could tell he was shaken by the conversation. I did not
ask him, but felt he knew more about the issue than he would like to
state.

When I speak or read about child abuse, I can look at the
audience and feel that there are people out there who know more about
it. I hear the deepness of their breath or how they swallow hard to hold
back emotions. Once you have been abused, you are no longer the same as
others that have not been. But there is hope, or I would not be here
writing this.

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~ Sara Schlossman, for Poetic Logic, January 10, 2008 ~