[the Writing of Kuypers]    [JanetKuypers.com]    [Bio]    [Poems]    [Prose]

Order this iTunes track from the poetry audio CD Hope Chest In The Attic 13 Years of Poetry & Prose ...Or order the entire CD set from iTunes:

Listen to this collaboration of Peter Bartels & Janet Kuypers in pb&j, or buy ANY tracks off their CD 2 for the price of 1, available any time online through iTunes.

Watch the YouTube video (2:57) live 08/05/07 at Beach poets

Listen from Kiki, Jake & Haytstack off the CD an american portrait

Watch this YouTube video of her reading this poem 10/01/11 at Studio 914/Chicago Underground Library (Canon), for Chicago Calling

Watch this YouTube video of her poem readings 10/01/11 at Studio 914/Chicago Underground Library (Canon), for Chicago Calling

Watch this YouTube video of Jeff Helgeson reading her poem live in Chicago at Café Ballou, thru the Waiting4the Bus open mike 4/2/12

See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers in her 2/5/17 20+ minute poetry reading at Austin’s Recycled Reads, with her poems “the Fourteenth”, “Mapping the Way to True Love”, “the Page”, “the Flashback”, “the Muse, the Messiah”, “Slate and Marrow”, and “just one book” (this video was filmed from a Canon Power Shot SX60 camera; posted on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, Instagram, and Tumblr).

See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers in her 2/5/17 20+ minute poetry reading at Austin’s Recycled Reads, with her poems “the Fourteenth”, “Mapping the Way to True Love”, “the Page”, “the Flashback”, “the Muse, the Messiah”, “Slate and Marrow”, and “just one book” (this video was filmed from a Canon Power Shot SX700 camera; posted on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, Instagram, and Tumblr).

Slate and Marrow I No one could understand, it was like every morning I couldn’t find a reason to wake up. The world felt cold, like slate, like the marble tiles in the front hallway of my parent’s house, that floor was always cold, oh, how I’d like to feel the cold against my feet now. But there I was, in some eleven by twelve apartment, room, running from my past, my present. Every morning I would wake up, and I would wake up from that night again - when he came uninvited, or did I invite him? The haze of the drunken nights from then on, wearing the dress, knowing the faceless faces couldn’t care less, as long as they could have their way with me later that night. What would my parents think of me now? I’m no longer their little girl. I could feel myself getting older by the minute, I could feel my skin wrinkling, my joints getting stiff. I could feel my bones, the marrow drying up, my bones crumbling away. And every morning I still put on my clothes, got my work together, headed out the door. Could I ever get out of this cycle? And it was if I had never realized that all this time I was looking for a purpose. And it was you. II When I strolled up to the street singer, I stopped because I saw your face. Why on earth did you think you could tell me your secrets when we only met fifteen minutes before? And just being in your presence made me break down, made me hate everything, made me love everything, made me want change. I’d hit you in rage, I’d lean on you, my slate, and you let me. And it was as if the marrow was back. I could just lay in bed at night and feel the blood running through my body, I could feel the oxygen as I inhaled hitting my bloodstream. I could even feel the marrow, all the cells in my body moving faster and faster. My skin would tingle. I suddenly had power - I could make blood move to any part of my body, I could make a pain go away, I could turn myself into stone, not so I was cold and unfeeling, but so I was strong, immovable. And I did it for me, but don’t you dare think for a minute that I didn’t do it for you. Copyright Janet Kuypers. All rights reserved. No material may be reprinted without express permission.