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te 2012 poetry bomb chapbook
Download the free chapbook with this poem of the 2012 Poetry Bomb, with the Periodic Table of Poetry poems.
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Watch this Youtube video
of this poem read live outdoors
at the Chicago “L” train for the 2012 Poetry Bomb 4/29/12
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Watch this Youtube video
of Kuypers reading ALL Periodic Table of Poetry poems (including this poem) at the Chicago “L” train for the 2012 Poetry Bomb 4/29/12
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See YouTube video
of Kuypers reading this poem 11/7/12 at the Café Gallery in Chicago (Canon)
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See YouTube video
of Kuypers reading this poem 11/7/12 at the Café Gallery in Chicago (Sony)
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See YouTube video
of Kuypers hosting the open mic 11/7/12 at Gallery Cabaret’s the Café Gallery in Chicago, plus this poem
video See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading her Periodic Table poem “Carbon“ live 2/23/14 at her “Chemistry, Poetry, and a Brat” feature reading in Kenosha WI at the Brat Stop, with an audience including both chemists and teachers requesting the elements poems (filmed from a Canon camera; posted on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, Instagram, and Tumblr).
video videonot yet rated
See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading her Periodic Table poem Carbon live 2/23/14 at Chemistry, Poetry and a Brat in Kenosha WI at the Brat Stop (C, Edge Detection)
video See YouTube video of Chicago poet Janet Kuypers reading her Periodic Table poems “Carbon” (C, #6), “Cadmium” (Cd, #48), and “Gold” (Au, #79) from her book “The Periodic Table of Poetry” 1/20/18 at Georgetown’s “Poetry Aloud” (this video was filmed from a Panasonic Lumix T56 camera; posted on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, Instagram, and Tumblr).
video See YouTube video of Chicago poet Janet Kuypers reading her Periodic Table poems “Carbon” (C, #6), “Cadmium” (Cd, #48), and “Gold” (Au, #79) from her book “The Periodic Table of Poetry” 1/20/18 at Georgetown’s “Poetry Aloud” (this video was filmed from a Panasonic Lumix 2500 camera; posted on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, Instagram, and Tumblr).
video Enjoy this YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading her Periodic Table poems “Lanthanum: the shoulders of giants” (+ image), “Carbon may have killed the dinosaurs after all” (+ image), “Carbon”, “Barium Dateline”, and “Gold for the foolish at heart” (+ image) from the Scars Publications 2/22 v192 issue of Down in the Dirt, “And I Disappear” 2/2/22 on the 1st Wednesday of the month from 1:00-3:00 PM CST during the usual time for the “Community Poetry” open mic (this video was filmed from a Panasonic Lumix 2500 camera; posted on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, Instagram, and Tumblr). #janetkuypers #janetkuyperspoetry #janetkuypersbookreading #janetkuyperstwitterverseperiodictablepoem #janetkuypersperiodictablepoem
video Enjoy this Facebook live video stream of Janet Kuypers reading her Periodic Table poems “Lanthanum: the shoulders of giants” (+ image), “Carbon may have killed the dinosaurs after all” (+ image), “Carbon”, “Barium Dateline”, and “Gold for the foolish at heart” (+ image) from the Scars Publications 2/22 v192 issue of Down in the Dirt, “And I Disappear” 2/2/22 on the 1st Wednesday of the month from 1:00-3:00 PM CST during the usual time for the “Community Poetry” open mic (this video was filmed and streamed live from a Samsung S9 camera with a lava flow filter; posted on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Instagram, and Tumblr). #janetkuypers #janetkuyperspoetry #janetkuypersbookreading #janetkuyperstwitterverseperiodictablepoem #janetkuypersperiodictablepoem
video Enjoy this YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading her poems “Lanthanum: the shoulders of giants” (+ shared the image from the online release of the poem), “Carbon may have killed the dinosaurs after all” (+ shared the image from the online release of the poem), “Carbon”, “Learning how Love Lasts”, “Evil is Tricky”, “Barium Dateline”, “popular and useless”, “Gold for the foolish at heart ” (+ shared the image from the online release of the poem), and “Xynotyro: It’s Not Ricotta” from the Down in the Dirt 1-4/22 Down in the Dirt issue collection book “The Ice that Was” on 7/6/22, the 1st Wednesday of the month from 1:00-3:00 PM CST in honor of the “Community Poetry” reading (this video was filmed from a Panasonic Lumix 2500 camera; posted on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, Instagram, and Tumblr). #janetkuypersbookreading #janetkuyperspoetry #janetkuypers #janetkuypersperiodictablepoetry #janetkuyperstwitterverseperiodictablepoem
video Enjoy this Facebook live video stream of Janet Kuypers reading her poems “Lanthanum: the shoulders of giants” (+ shared the image from the online release of the poem), “Carbon may have killed the dinosaurs after all” (+ shared the image from the online release of the poem), “Carbon”, “Learning how Love Lasts”, “Evil is Tricky”, “Barium Dateline”, “popular and useless”, “Gold for the foolish at heart ” (+ shared the image from the online release of the poem), and “Xynotyro: It’s Not Ricotta” from the Down in the Dirt 1-4/22 Down in the Dirt issue collection book “The Ice that Was” on 7/6/22, the 1st Wednesday of the month from 1:00-3:00 PM CST in honor of the “Community Poetry” reading (this video was filmed and streamed live from a Samsung S9 camera with a b&w Old Film filter). #janetkuypersbookreading #janetkuyperspoetry #janetkuypers #janetkuypersperiodictablepoetry #janetkuyperstwitterverseperiodictablepoem

Carbon

Janet Kuypers
from the “Periodic Table of Poetry” series
4/21/12

I used to see the magazine ads
and the tee vee commercials.
All I was taught
was that a big busted blonde
was all I could aspire to be.
So I would dye my hair.
So I could act the dumb blonde.
I could still beat them
at any mind games,
but men don’t like the truth
shoved in their faces,
because they refuse to believe
anything that doesn’t stroke
their ego.

So yeah, I was a carbon copy
of what the media shoved
down America’s throats.

And yeah, as time went on
the dark-haired women
started to gain some popularity back,
but they still had to be anorexically thin
and they still had to battle
the notion of all men
still adoring the dumb blonde.
And yeah, as the years wore on
I didn’t have to die my hair,
but I still had to be thin,
I had to be the carbon copy
of the dark-haired, gaunt,
soulless faces
plastered on billboards,
papers and screens.

I pass the magazine stands,
see carbon copies of the models
on multiple magazine covers.

I pass the media store
with rows and stacks
of repeated tee vee screens,
showing carbon copies
to the world
of what we’re supposed to be.

I don’t want to be
a carbon copy of anything.
I want my own thoughts.
my own ideas,
and I want to spill them out
for the entire world to read and hear.

But carbon copy or not,
I end up resigned,
knowing that despite our differences,
we are all carbon—
based life forms.
I mean, when scientists
look for life on other planets,
they always only look
for water first.
Well sure, hydrogen, oxygen,
life as we know it
needs it, I get it.
But carbon-based life forms
are all we know.
I mean, whether or not
they have arms or legs,
or gills, or a mouth, or a brain,
they all have carbon in common.

So when I see
the atrocities mankind causes:

when I see Adolph Hitler,
the vegetarian artist wanna-be,
when I see Adolph Hitler
collect his cult followers
to systematically slaughter
millions...

when I see the stacks
of the skin and bone emaciation,
stacks of bodies in ditches,
or in rooms, stacked in a pyramid
to the small hole for air in the ceiling
after their final “shower”...

when I see the pope
visit Cuba
and wear a sombrero...

when I see chickens
crammed into rows of cages
they cannot move in,
for their eggs, for their flesh...

and when I see
the rows of pre-packaged
barely recognizable cow flesh
wrapped in cellophane,
row after row in the grocery store...

It is then I have to remember
that despite everything,
and as much as I hate to admit it,
we are not all that different.
I mean,
if nothing else,
we are all
carbon-based life forms.


Copyright © Janet Kuypers.

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


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Carbon Carbon; image by Kaycie D., kcd-elements.tumblr.com Carbon Carbon




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