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Live at Waiting4the Bus
in Chicago 05/18/09
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read live in the show “hmmm” 11/20/11 at the Café open mike in Chicago
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of the entire Janet Kuypers show “hmm” live 11/20/11 at the Café open mike in Chicago
video See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading her poem “That’s from the Barbed Wire” from the v5 cc&d boss lady poetry collection book “On the Edge”, then her 2019 poems “Eat Your Words” (written for Edible Book Day) and “Etching, Scribbling, Drawing” (written on International Scribble day) at “Recycled Reads” 4/20/19 (this video was filmed from a Panasonic Lumix T56 camera).
video See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading her poem “That’s from the Barbed Wire” from the v5 cc&d boss lady poetry collection book “On the Edge”, then her 2019 poems “Eat Your Words” (written for Edible Book Day) and “Etching, Scribbling, Drawing” (written on International Scribble day) at “Recycled Reads” 4/20/19 (this video was filmed from a Panasonic Lumix T56 camera, with a Posterize filter).
video See this YouTube video (posted 6/7/22, a Tuesday like The Café open mic dates) of Janet Kuypers reading her poems ““that’s from the barbed wire””, “the Cycle of Life”, “Finding Faith in a Grocery Store”, and “Painted Buddhas” from the Down in the Dirt v194 4/22 book “Seahorse” when visiting Chicago 3/29/22 for “The Café Gallery 6/7/22 Book Reading” in The Café Gallery Book Reading series (this video was filmed from a Panasonic Lumix 2500 camera; posted on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, Instagram, and Tumblr). #janetkuypers #janetkuyperspoem #janetkuypersbookreading #janetkuypersperiodictablepoem #janetkuypersthecafegallery
video See this YouTube video (posted 5/31/22, a Tuesday like The Café Gallery open mic dates) of Janet Kuypers reading her poems ““that’s from the barbed wire””, “the Cycle of Life”, “Finding Faith in a Grocery Store”, and “Painted Buddhas” from the Down in the Dirt v194 4/22 book “Seahorse when visiting Chicago 3/29/22 for “The Café Gallery 5/31/22 Book Reading” in The Café Gallery Book Reading series (video from a Samsung S9 camera; posted on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, Instagram, and Tumblr). #janetkuypers #janetkuypersbookreading #janetkuyperspoetry #janetkuypersthecafegallery
video Enjoy this YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading her poems “How People Interpret My Words”, “you’ve already paid for this”, “Chicago”, “that’s from the barbed wire”, and “the Cycle of Life” from the Down in the Dirt 1-4/22 Down in the Dirt issue collection book “The Ice that Was” on 8/3/22 on the 1st Wednesday of the month (1:00-3:00 PM CST) in honor of ‘Community Poetry’ (this video was filmed from a Panasonic Lumix 2500 camera; on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, Instagram, and Tumblr). #janetkuypers #janetkuyperspoetry #janetkuypersbookreading
video Enjoy this Facebook live video stream of Janet Kuypers reading her poems “How People Interpret My Words”, “you’ve already paid for this”, “Chicago”, “that’s from the barbed wire”, and “the Cycle of Life” from the Down in the Dirt 1-4/22 Down in the Dirt issue collection book “The Ice that Was” on 8/3/22 on the 1st Wednesday of the month (1:00-3:00 PM CST) in honor of ‘Community Poetry’ (from a Samsung S9 camera; posted on Twitter, Linkedin, Instagram, and Tumblr). #janetkuypers #janetkuyperspoetry #janetkuypersbookreading

“that’s from the barbed wire”

Janet Kuypers, 05/18/09

she had skin of silk
smooth and strong
beautiful to touch

            with silk around you
            you always get warm
                               feel warm
            you can’t escape it

I watched her skin
her silken exterior
and saw occasional rips
            small spare tears
with little dots of blood
tracing the edges

I had to ask

and she told me
“oh,
that’s from the barbed wire”

and I suddenly
internally panicked
what did they do to her
how did they hurt her
...or was she trying
to escape
their potential torture

how could they destroy
this silken beauty
how —

then I wondered
where the barbed wire
was
I wondered where
the torture was

and then I wondered
if the barbed wire
was inside her
trying to tear her
silk
trying to break its way
out


Copyright © 2009 Janet Kuypers.

All rights reserved. No material
may be reprinted without express permission.





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