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


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live, Mercury Cafe 08/09/08, Chicago
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live, Mercury Cafe 08/09/08, Chicago
with film from the Internet Archive
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Published in her book Close Cover Before Striking, read (for future audio CD release) 06/28/11 live at the Café
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video 06/28/11 of her performing her poetry & live Janet Kuypers & John Yotko songs @ Chicago’s the Café
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of the intro to the 06/28/11 open mic at the Café in Chicago, plus her Close Cover Before Striking prose & poem
video Enjoy this YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading her poems Mary’s Perspective on How that Whole Jesus thing Turned Out”, “letter, 4/14/95 one”, “letter, 4/14/95 two”, “letter, 4/14/95 three”, “letter, 4/19/95”, “Us Creative Types”, and “How People Interpret My Words” from the CyberWit.net Janet Kuypers 2023 poetry book “Testament” on 4/30/23 in front of St. Mary’s Cathedral in Austin for the 2023 Poetry Bomb (this video was filmed from a Panasonic Lumix 2500 camera; posted on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, Instagram, and Tumblr). video This was also released as a Facebook live video stream that was filmed and streamed from a Samsung S9 camera; on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Instagram, and Tumblr). #janetkuypers #janetkuyperspoetry #janetkuypersbookreading #janetkuyperspoetrybomb

letter, 4/14/95 three

    Now it’s just sort of a daily refutation of going ahead and cutting my wrists. But I really don’t want to die. The intake dude at the clinic asked today, “Well, are you in immediate trouble? Are you into killing yourself TODAY?” “Well...I have IDEAS about how I might pull it off, and yeah, man, I do feel AWFULLY bad.” But the doctor wasn’t buying it enough to see me before Monday. I guess I should learn to froth at the mouth & pull a razor blade right out at the beginning of the interview.

i keep seeing reports
that there are going to be
more cutbacks
saving us from the horrid

government waste,
and being a taxpayer
that manages to sustain
myself, I often tend to

agree. I think, why can’t
they get a job? I’ve done
it, why do I have to support
them? But then I see

you, and I wish there was
more I, or the government,
could do. I sit here, read
letter after letter, wondering

if this is the last piece of
mail I’ll ever receive from you.
Wondering if that doctor
ever feels any remorse

when she hears that a person
she turned away died by
their own hand. If anyone
feels any remorse. Does it

take knowing someone to
worry about them? Probably,
we americans learn to close
ourselves off to everyone we can,

to avoid pain. I feel your pain,
and I don’t mean that to sound
like some bad presidential
cliche. I wish there was something

I could give. Not medication.
Not words. Not even an
embrace. A new feeling. A
new lease on life. Anything.


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