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


video
videonot yet rated

Watch the YouTube video
live in Death ‘n’ Rebirth 07/11/10 at Beach Poets
video Enjoy the full video of the Beach Poets Death ‘n’ Rebirth 7/11/10 show from archive.org... (on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Instagram, and Tumblr). #janetkuypers #janetkuyperspoetry #janetkuypersmusic #janetkuyperssinging #janetkuyperschicago #janetkuyperspoetryshow #janetkuypersfeature
PDF download the free chapbook Death ‘n’ Rebirth
with all of the writing in the live show
video videonot yet rated
Watch this YouTube video
11/23/10, live at the Café in Chicago
video videonot yet rated
See YouTube video
of Kuypers reading this poem 4/8/13 at the Frankenstone art center in Chicago (Sony)
video videonot yet rated
See YouTube video
of Kuypers reading this poem 4/8/13 at the Frankenstone art center in Chicago (Canon)
video See YouTube video of Kuypers performing poetry in a poetry reading, as she was called the “Headliner” 4/8/13 at Chicago’s Frankenstone art center this video was filmed from a Sony camera; posted on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, Instagram and Tumblr). #janetkuypers #janetkuyperspoetryshow
video See YouTube video of Kuypers performing poetry in a poetry reading, as she was called the “Headliner” 4/8/13 at Chicago’s Frankenstone art center (this video was filmed from a Canon camera; posted on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, Instagram, and Tumblr). #janetkuypers #janetkuyperspoetryshow
video videonot yet rated
See YouTube video
of Janet Kuypers reading her poem Left with a Hole live 9/18/13 at the open mic the Café Gallery in Chicago (C)
video videonot yet rated
See YouTube video
of Janet Kuypers reading her poem Left with a Hole live 9/18/13 at the open mic the Café Gallery in Chicago (S)
video videonot yet rated
See YouTube video
of Janet Kuypers reading her poem Jumping from the Skyline to the Clouds in Nashville 10/26/13 in her Nashville Halloween feature
video videonot yet rated
See YouTube video
of Janet Kuypers reading her “Periodic Table” poems (and two original songs) live in her Chicago 10/20/13 feature Nashville Halloween feature, including this writing
Nashville Halloween feature chapbook
Download this free chapbook of the
Nashville Halloween feature,
w/ Tag Team and Periodic Table poems in this show.
video videonot yet rated
See YouTube video
of Janet Kuypers reading 3 poems, Left with a Hole, “So”, & Scratch the Surface from her book let me see you Stripped, 1/17/16 at the Austin open mic Kick Butt Poetry (Canon Power Shot).
video See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading 3 poems, Left with a Hole, “So”, & Scratch the Surface from her book let me see you Stripped, 1/17/16 at the Austin open mic Kick Butt Poetry (this video was filmed from a Nikon Cool Pix S7000 camera; posted on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, Instagram, and Tumblr).
video See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading her poems “Coslow’s”, “a woman talking about her rapist friend” and “Left with a Hole” from her book “Rape, Sexism Life & Death” at Georgetown’s “Poetry Aloud” open mic 1/13/18 (this video was filmed from a Panasonic Lumix T56 camera; posted on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, Instagram, and Tumblr).
video See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading her poems “Coslow’s”, “a woman talking about her rapist friend” and “Left with a Hole” from her book “Rape, Sexism Life & Death” at Georgetown’s “Poetry Aloud” open mic 1/13/18 (this video was filmed from a Panasonic Lumix 2500 camera; posted on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, Instagram, and Tumblr).
video videonot yet rated

See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading her poems “The Things They Did to You”, “Isn’t That What it’s all About”, and “Left with a Hole” from her interview/journal/poetry book “In Depth” 12/15/18 @ “Recycled Reads” in Austin (filmed from a Panasonic Lumix 2500 camera).
video videonot yet rated

See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading her poems “The Things They Did to You”, “Isn’t That What it’s all About”, and “Left with a Hole” from her interview/journal/poetry book “In Depth” 12/15/18 @ “Recycled Reads” in Austin (filmed from a Panasonic Lumix T56 camera).

Left with a Hole

Janet Kuypers
07/05/10

you ever see tee vee shows, or in the movies
how some protagonist would fall into a coma
i don’t know from what, a gun shot, a car crash

well, every time they wake up from their coma
and they’re under from like four weeks to four years
they come to and they’re mentally just fine

they talk in complete sentences,
and they remember what happened to them
right up until the catastrophe

But let me be the voice of experience
in the real world, that’s not the way it goes
you don’t remember what happened right before

the coma began, you’ll wake up confused
because your long-term memory never got the chance
to save your short-term memories from that fateful day

when you wake up, you’ll have to train yourself
to walk and talk and eat again
you’ll fall out of your hospital bed trying to leave

you’ll want to kill the people who did this to you
you’ll want to scream your story to the world
as they put you in restraints at night

you know, for your own protection

you’ll want to rip that food tube out of you,
but you’ll be afraid to put food in your mouth.
look, you’ll have to remind yourself

that you’ve done this before, it’s not hard, everyone does it
put some food on a fork, put it in your mouth,
remove fork, start chewing, and just swallow.

I know it seems strange, but you can do this.

you have to build your life again, piece by piece,
I mean, you did this from scratch when you were a baby,
you’re an adult now, you can retrain yourself

people will ask you if you remember what happened to you
that fateful day, and they’ll think it’s just like the movies
and everyone just snaps out of their coma good as new

you won’t know how to tell them
that you’ll never be as good as new
and nothing you can say will make them understand

that even though you woke up,
those bastards who did this to you, they took so much
that you can’t even remember

the seconds before your life was forever changed for the worse.
you’re left with a hole. they even took your memories
of the last seconds of your life from you


Copyright © 2010 Janet Kuypers.

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


my hand to an anim of jkchair



Kuypers at Artvilla


scars publications


Kuypers writing