Someone told me to post this.... So here it is!

This is the poem I read at the last poetry reading... It's a found poem from the book "Stigma" by Erving Goffman


appreciated pressure
broken notion of males
replaced image
rendering identifiably individual
complex, body-bound behavior
and personal identity
history pegs others
becoming
sticky, structured, standardized, social set
unchanging biological attributes
permanently pegs behavior
contained

popular personal public perserved
woman
his name officially recorded
carries important aspects
of social identity
average aliases
used identity
embodied signs of stigma
establishing dangerous error
ambiguity transforming
into forgery
social facts
authorized stigma symbols

misrepresentation
may potentially enter surface
exploited identity
concealing personal identity
incognito oral statements
insufficient attempt appropriate always

life anchored
by social scientists
retrospective society
scoundrel man cannot contrast
social segregation
frequency of misrepresentation
“dressing down”, cheap
personal identity to sustain woman
working class permissable
possession strange possessor, him
middle class deviates
undesirable candor
knowing embarrassment
tactless and concealed

outright implication
accounting the facts
bearing personal social identification
consolidating possession
revealed prejudices
stigma behavior
anonymously private audience

homosexuals remain knowing and unknowing
those bring information
for someone whom they have no personal biography
nonetheless not known personal identity
presence personal particular
anonymous anonymity
marked socially outside
mental placing
well-known function
whose entrance is suspicious
circle him
smaller circle
socially personally
acquaintanceship of almost identity

contrast fame
in rare desirable possession
cognitively promiscuous
chased where
average active accident alibi
hand fate fame
obvious social control
molested young girls
movies on a larger scale
appearance of personal identification
fixing minds
control control
circle large

“private” transformed into “public” image
personally direct
inflated dramatic appearance
cuts spoiled newsworthy
uncharacteristic attributes
love hate
physical deformity
hangmen
hostile although incompatible
vastly different personal identification
haphazard role
undiagnosed concern
prostitutes, thieves, homosexuals, beggars, drug addicts, tramps
expose their status
unapparent mutual failings found
complete stigma
exposed to strangers