Lake County poet laureate reads poem about survivor whose assaulter was acquitted; resident shares own abuse account

Brenda Marie Yeager, the poet laureate of Lake County, read a poem titled "Kintsugi" during a Lake County Board of Supervisors meeting to mark National Poetry Month and to draw attention to Sexual Assault Awareness Month and Child Abuse Prevention Month.

Yeager said she wrote the poem at the request of a friend whose assaulter was acquitted, and she read lines that addressed jurors and the experience of survivors. "Kintsugi is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery," Yeager said before the reading, explaining the poem's title and metaphor. Later in the poem she read: "The fracture of her voice in the 911 call not yet hardened into gold."

The poem uses a sequence of numbered images to describe physical and emotional injury; Yeager asked listeners to consider jurors' roles in providing justice for victims, saying her friend "personally asked me to write this poem" after the acquittal.

During the public-comment portion that followed, Elaine Brown, identified in the meeting transcript as a resident, described an experience of sexual contact she said began when she was 18 years old. "At 18, all that happened was that he would want me to kiss him on the lips and hug him," Brown said, adding that she did not receive help from others on the trip until late in the ordeal. Brown said the episode informs why she speaks up loudly about these issues.

Yeager told the board she provides free writing services to Lake County residents and that she advocates for poetry's role in community awareness and healing.

The poem reading and public comments were recorded as part of the board's meeting; no formal votes or board actions were taken on the subject during the transcripted segment.