poem “Fighting for Freedom on Christmas”, a poem describing George Washington’s first battle while fighting for the U.S. to gain their independence from the British Empire, and how they crossed the Potomac River on Christmas day to catch the German Hessians off guard because they were busy celebrating Christmas, By Chicago Poet Janet Kuypers

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

See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading her poems “open flame for the celebration” first performed in her ”Akitu” poetry feature and read from her poetry book “(pheromemes) 2015-2017 show poems”, then her poem “Returning to Georgetown” originally from her poetry feature “Under my Skin” and read from her poetry performance art collection book “Chapter 48 (v2)”, then her 2019 poem “Fighting for Freedom on Christmas” (written on and in honor of George Washington’s birthday) 2/23/19 while she hosted “Poetry Aloud” (this video was filmed from a Panasonic Lumix T56 camera; posted on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, Instagram, and Tumblr). #janetkuypers #janetkuyperspoetry #janetkuypersbookreading

See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading her poems “open flame for the celebration” first performed in her ”Akitu” poetry feature and read from her poetry book “(pheromemes) 2015-2017 show poems”, then her poem “Returning to Georgetown” originally from her poetry feature “Under my Skin” and read from her poetry performance art collection book “Chapter 48 (v2)”, then her 2019 poem “Fighting for Freedom on Christmas” (written on and in honor of George Washington’s birthday) 2/23/19 while she hosted “Poetry Aloud” (this video was filmed from a Panasonic Lumix T56 camera; posted on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, Instagram, and Tumblr). #janetkuypers #janetkuyperspoetry #janetkuypersbookreading

See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading her poem “Fighting for Freedom on Christmas” (written on the calendar day of George Washington’s birthday) and read from her poetry book “Every Event of the Year (Volume one: January-June)”, then singing the Pudding Head mix of “Last Christmas” by Wham! with John on acoustic guitar, then John read his poem ”It Wasn’t My Intent” while Janet played background guitar music with a bow, live 12/28/19 at Georgetown’s “Poetry Aloud” open mic at the Grace Heritage Center (this video was filmed from a Panasonic Lumix T56 camera, and posted on Facebook Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, and Tumblr).

See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading her poem “Fighting for Freedom on Christmas” (written on the calendar day of George Washington’s birthday) and read from her poetry book “Every Event of the Year (Volume one: January-June)”, then singing the Pudding Head mix of “Last Christmas” by Wham! with John on acoustic guitar, then John read his poem ”It Wasn’t My Intent” while Janet played background guitar music with a bow, live 12/28/19 at Georgetown’s “Poetry Aloud” open mic at the Grace Heritage Center (from a Panasonic Lumix T56 camera and given a Sepia Tone filter, and posted on Facebook Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, and Tumblr).

See a YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading her poems “Fighting for Freedom on Christmas”, “Equality Manifesto”, and “Jumping Genes, & the Infiltration of my DNA” from the cc&d 2/21 v306 book “More Softly than the Thunder” for The Café Gallery 2/9/21 Book Reading in The Café Gallery Book Reading series (video filmed from a Panasonic Lumix 2500 camera w/ a Sepia Tone filter; posted on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, Instagram, and Tumblr). #janetkuypers #janetkuyperspoetry #janetkuypersbookreading #janetkuypersthecafegallery

See a Facebook live video stream of Janet Kuypers reading her poems “Fighting for Freedom on Christmas”, “Equality Manifesto”, and “Jumping Genes, & the Infiltration of my DNA” from the cc&d 2/21 v306 book “More Softly than the Thunder” for The Café Gallery 2/9/21 Book Reading (this video was filmed and streamed from a Samsung S9 camera). #janetkuypers #janetkuyperspoetry #janetkuypersbookreading #janetkuypersthecafegallery

See this YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading her poems “Fighting for Freedom on Christmas”, “Equality Manifesto”, and “Quickly Judged” from the “More Softly than the Thunder” section of the Scars Publi cations 1-4 2021 cc&d issue collection book “What Lies on the Other Side”, read 4/7/21 during the usual time for Austin’s “Community Poetry” feature reading (video from a Panasonic Lumix 2500 camera; posted on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, Instagram, and Tumblr). #janetkuypers #janetkuyperspoetry #janetkuypersbookreading #janetkuypersinstagram

See this YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading her poems “Fighting for Freedom on Christmas”, “Equality Manifesto”, and “Quickly Judged” from the “More Softly than the Thunder” section of the Scars Publi cations 1-4 2021 cc&d issue collection book “What Lies on the Other Side” read 4/7/21 during the usual time for Austin’s “Community Poetry” feature reading (video from a Panasonic Lumix T56 camera; posted on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, Instagram, and Tumblr). #janetkuypers #janetkuyperspoetry #janetkuypersbookreading #janetkuypersinstagram

Enjoy this YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading her “I wrote this in the dark” book poems “Sulfur, Suddenly” + sharing its image (which is also in her book “Twitter Verse Periodic Table Poetry”), “Fighting for Freedom on Christmas” (which is also in the book “Every Event of the Year (Volume one: January-June)”) and her poems “Kerning, Ballots, and Women’s Rights” “Vote Changing: the System’s Solution” “Eliminate All Rapists” “Revelation One: One-Four” “Revelation One: Five-Eight” and “Revelation One: Eleven” (which are also in the CyberWit 2023 book “Testa ment”) for the 5/3/23 ‘Community Poetry’ honorary book reading (filmed from a Panasonic Lumix 2500 camera; on Facebook, Twitter, Linked in, Pinterest, Instagram, and Tumblr).
Also enjoy this as a Facebook live video stream that was filmed and streamed from a Samsung S9 camera, and posted on Facebook, Twitter, Linked in, Instagram, and Tumblr). #janetkuypers #janetkuyperspoetry #janetkuypersbookreading #janetkuyperswomensrights #janetkuyperstwitterverseperiodictablepoem

Enjoy this YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading her poem “Ytterbium” from the books “It’s All About Impact” & “Periodic Ta ble Poetry”, then “Fighting for Freedom on Christmas” from the books “Casti ng Off” & “Every Event of the Year (Volume One: January-June)”, then “Just on Book” from the books “Casti ng Off”, “(pheromemes) 2015-2017 poems”, “Chapter 48 v2”, & “Every Event of the Year (Volume Two: July-December)” (+ bonus images 2/4/17 1 & 2, 8/4/17 1, 8/22/17 1 & 2, 8/23/17 1, & 8/3/20 1) to close her “Poetic License 12/3/23 global open mic” through a Zoom meeting and a Facebook event page (this video was filmed from a Panasonic Lumix 2500 camera; on Facebook, Twitter, Link ed in, Pinterest, Instagram, and Tumblr).
Also enjoy this as a Facebook live video stream (in a video that was filmed & streamed from a Samsung S9 camera with a BINARY NOTATION filter; on Facebook, Twitter, Link ed in, Instagram, and Tumblr). #janetkuypers #janetkuypersbookreading #janetkuyperspoetry #janetkuypersperiodictablepoem #janetkuyperspoeticlicense

Fighting for Freedom
on Christmas
Janet Kuypers
2/20/19
When these guys got together
and wrote the Declaration of Independence,
the British Empire didn’t roll over and say, ‘oh, okay’
and let the United States of America do whatever they wanted.
Just because we signed a paper
saying we choose to be free from Britain, paper
didn’t mean anything to the British Empire, so they
were ready to fight to keep their hold over us any way they could.
So yeah, Britain came to fight,
but since they were an Empire and all,
they’d employ some of the Hessians from Germany
to do some of the fighting for them, so they could cover all bases.
After months fighting in 1776,
George Washington’s Continental Army
was at a loss — it was approaching Christmas, and they
stayed camped on the shores of the Delaware river in Pennsylvania.
Hessians, German mercenary
soldiers for the British Empire, were all
across the river at Trenton, New Jersey, which
stopped the Americans, who were now out of munitions. So...
on December 23^rd, Washington brings
over Hugh Mercer, a Scottish general, and
captain Alexander Hamilton, and he says, the
Hessians are going to be drunk and reveling on Christmas night,
so that is when we’ll attack, when
they least expect it. But Mercer explained,
‘we don’t have any munitions’ — which is when
Hamilton said, ‘that’s why we attack then, to <>Iget their munitions.’
Washington thinks, we have
5,000 troops, we’ll cross the Delaware,
that’s 300 yards, we’ll get through the ice and
we’ll fight the British, who only have their hired German army.
Christmas rolls around, and
the Hessians are celebrating Christmas —
which is when separate U.S. ships set sail. Those stuck
on Mercer’s ship think, ‘there’s too much snow, let’s go back.’
All Hamilton could think
was that ‘we have to help Washington,’
even though others on his boat balked, saying
‘there’s too much snow, there’s too much ice, it’s just too cold.’
George Washington
could only stress to everyone
that ‘we’re crossing the Delaware river.’
There was no arguing with the man over this one.
And maybe you’ve seen
the painting of it, but it was
much grimier and dirtier than the painting
could ever portray — there were 60, 70 mile per hour winds,
icicles are hitting their boat,
made of cheap pine and probably
barely holding up — and some of the soldiers
had towels wrapped around their feet because they had no shoes.
The Continental Army fought
the ice and the snow to cross 300 yards
of water to make it across the Delaware River.
When they crossed, the sun already rose, they knew they were late.
But that deadline was only
in their minds. They just survived Hell.
So by now they could only think: Let’s do this.
With that, they walked into fort Trenton, and they caught the entire
Hessian military off guard.
Washington ended up catching
over 1,000 Hessians, and only 4 Continental Army
troops died. Then they looked and saw all of their munitions, but,
added bonus, they also
found in a corner a stash of rum.
Added bonus indeed, they thought, so they
got really drunk on the rum, and taking their Hessian prisoners
back across the Delaware
river, they were falling over drunk —
I mean, falling out of the boat drunk. So much
for the Continental Army wearing towels for shoes,
because at this point,
the Continental Army is drunk
and freezing from their ice-filled river ride.
So despite the pain, know that this is George Washington’s
first major victory
in battle for his country, the country
he would later lead as it’s first President,
a man we emblazon on our dollar bills still. And now
we give so much credit
to anyone elected as president.
But think of the battles George Washington
had to fight to get to that point, which was only the beginning.
It was the beginning
of everything that would define
not only George Washington, but also
him as a fighter and a leader — and what we define as this nation.

my hand to an anim of jkchair