poem “Dance Among the Ashes”, a poem about people seeing the fire at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, not knowing the danger the would face, and watched the floe glow of the radioactive fire in the middle of the night, then saw the ashes fall they saw no danger in (because they did not know it was radioactive), and that for a lot of people who lived through this would die in a few years of cancer because of the explosion, By Chicago Poet Janet Kuypers

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

See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading her 2019 poems “Others Kill for Us”, “Burning Building (2019 Day of Silence edit)”, and her 2019 Instagram poem “Dance Among the Ashes” (then showing the Instagram image for it), live 6/15/19 at Austin’s “Recycled Reads” (Panasonic Lumix T56 camera).

See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading her 2019 poems “Others Kill for Us”, “Burning Building (2019 Day of Silence edit)”, and her 2019 Instagram poem “Dance Among the Ashes” (then showing the Instagram image for it), live 6/15/19 at Austin’s “Recycled Reads” (Panasonic Lumix T56; Sepia).

See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading her poem “Vanishing Scars” for William Stafford and to highlight her book “(pheromemes) 2015-2017 poems”, then her poem “Dance Among the Ashes” from her 2019 book “(pheromones) haiku, Instagram, Twitter, and poetry”, then her new poem “Española Lore”, live 1/26/20 at Georgetown’s “Poetry Aloud” (Panasonic Lumix T56 camera; on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and Tumblr).

See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading her poem “Vanishing Scars” for William Stafford and to highlight her book “(pheromemes) 2015-2017 poems”, then her poem “Dance Among the Ashes” from her 2019 book “(pheromones) haiku, Instagram, Twitter, and poetry”, then her new poem “Española Lore”, live 1/26/20 at Georgetown’s “Poetry Aloud” (Panasonic Lumix 2500 camera; on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and Tumblr).

Enjoy this YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading her poems “Memorial Day, 2019 edit” (+ image), “Dance Among the Ashes” (+ image), and “Zouk or Xibelani” from the v321 5/22 cc&d book “The New Normal”, then her poem “Human Construct of Time” to start her “Poetic License global open mic 5/1/22” she hosted through a Zoom meeting and a Facebook event page (this video was filmed from a Panasonic Lumix 2500 camera; posted on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, Instagram, and Tumblr). #janetkuypers janertkuyperspoetry #janetkuypersbookreading #janetkuyperspoeticlicense

Enjoy this Facebook live video stream of Janet Kuypers reading her poems “Memorial Day, 2019 edit” (+ image), “Dance Among the Ashes” (+ image), and “Zouk or Xibelani” from the v321 5/22 cc&d book “The New Normal”, then, after Zoom host John F. McMullen reads his poem in “The New Normal” Janet Kuypers followed it by reading her poem “Human Construct of Time” to start her “Poetic License global open mic 5/1/22” she hosted through a Zoom meeting and a Facebook event page (this video was filmed & streamed from a Samsung S9 camera with an Old b&w Film filter; posted on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Instagram, and Tumblr). #janetkuypers #janetkuyperspoetry #janetkuypersbookreading #janetkuyperspoeticlicense

Enjoy this YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading her poems “Memorial Day, 2019 edit” (+ image), “Became a Circus”, “Dance Among the Ashes” (+ image), “Zouk or Xibelani”, “Out of Wedding Dresses”, and “Human Construct of Time” from the cc&d 5-8/22 issue collection book “The Wall” on 9/7/22 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

Enjoy this Facebook live video stream of Janet Kuypers reading her poems “Memorial Day, 2019 edit” (+ image), “Became a Circus”, “Dance Among the Ashes” (+ image), “Zouk or Xibelani”, “Out of Wedding Dresses”, and “Human Construct of Time” from the cc&d 5-8/22 issue collection book “The Wall” on 9/7/22 on the 1st Wednesday of the month (1:00-3:00 PM CST) in honor of ‘Community Poetry’ (this video was filmed & streamed from a Samsung S9 camera; posted on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Instagram, and Tumblr). #janetkuypers #janetkuyperspoetry #janetkuypersbookreading

Dance Among the Ashes
Janet Kuypers
5/27/19 (about the Chernobyl disaster; poem
linked on twitter and Instagram and Tumblr)
It all came around and on top of us so fast.
You would think there was fire in the sky
the way, above the clouds, the air turned
an almost iridescent blue, like the base of a
candle. There was a fire in the distance, you
thought you were a safe distance away to
watch. ...The ashes, bigger than silver dollars,
made you feel like you were living through
an abstract ticker-tape parade. The sky show
seemed surreal, with a two-thirty a.m. glow
that almost made you want to dance among
the ashes. None of us knew we were dancing
with death — and what we breathed, what we
touched, now made this the most dangerous
place on earth. After a day my face turned pink,
almost like I had too much to drink. But after
what happened, after what came on so fast,
no drink was enough for what would come next.

Copyright © Janet Kuypers.

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

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