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This writing was accepted for publication in the 108 page perfect-bound ISSN# / ISBN# issue/book “Rhetoric and the Written Word” cc&d (v267) (the January 2017 issue)  You can also order this 6"x9" issue as a paperback book:  |
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enjoy this writing from Janet Kuypers in the cc&d free 2017 PDF file chapbook: “Book Release & Book Reading” of poems chosen for a featured 3/1/17 poetry reading live at Half Price Books in Austin Texas (1-3PM) of poems in 3/1/17 book releases, plus past book poems Click the title or the cover for the chapbook. |
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Order this writing in the book Things Found in Books the cc&d July-Dec. 2016 collection book |
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get the 418 page Jan.-April 2017 cc&d magazine issue collection 6" x 9" ISBN# paperback book:
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Order this Janet Kuypers writing from her most recent poetry book series: (pheromemes) 2015-2017 poems Order this 6" x 9" ISBN# book today of select poems written mid-2015 - mid-2017 during her first years living in Austin, TX
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Order this poem in the 2021 poetry book Eternal Never Ending Now Janet Kuypers 1st poetry book from CyberWit.net press T h i s b o o k i n c l u d e s some of Kuypers’ best poetry written over the entire span of her writing career, and is a perfect introduction of Kuypers’s poetry to this international book publisher and retailer. |
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order the ISBN# perfect-bonud 5½" x 8½" paperback book from CyberWit.net: 
Or order directly through Amazon.com: |
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| Vanishing Scars
Janet Kuypers 2/9/16 “They tell you how it was... and how it happened again and again. They tell the slant life takes when it turns and slashes your face as a friend.” — William Stafford, from “Scars” Any wound is real, he says, and yes, it’s true, I know it.* For the faces of promise are also the places the scars will be. Yes, bright-eyed children, this is the battle you have to look forward to. Brace yourself, if you know how. It might hurt less then. For once we are grown we are all too aware of past tortures and traumas, they leave physical and emotional scars we wear like badges, while knowing these scars scar us. Hide the marks from your face, your stomach from when you were hospitalized against your will for months. Hide the bruises around your neck as you leave the country to escape the man who once claimed he loved you. Force yourself to forget the disappointing diatribes your disappointment of a father gave you, while you struggle to be stronger than him, despite him. If you internalize some scars, turn them around, then watch your helplessness transform to rage, then to solace and insight to help others recover from their own physical and sexual traumas. They say that time heals all wounds, and you wish for the scars to vanish; your brutish, broodish demeanor is a blemish you wish would perish — but wait a minute, search for that scar on the cleft of your chin from when you scratched when you had the Chickenpox. You would swear that scar was there, but where did it go. Then you turn to the one you love. They tell you they’ve never seen the scars. That you’ve always been a bright white beam of light, almost too blinding for anyone to fully take in, which is why you can never be fully understood... And this is all they think when they see you, and all they can say is I love you. And maybe that is the treatment for the traumas... and the scars to hard to handle. Any wound is real, for scars too hard to handle. And any wound is real, as long as you give it the power to take over your soul and fester into a fiendish demon. So just remember that despite those vanishing scars that are now too taxing to tally, despite those battle scars... you are a blinding light that no one, thankfully, will ever fully understand. Italicized portion of this poem are quotes from the William Stafford poem “Scars”. * line toward he end of the Ai poem “The Good Shepherd: Atlanta, 1981.” |
