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

See YouTube video 4/21/19 on Easter of Janet Kuypers reading her poem “Genesis Eleven: the Tower of Babble” on the last day the restaurant “Opal Divine’s Marina” in Austin (video filmed from a Panasonic Lumix T56 camera).

See YouTube video 4/21/19 on Easter of Janet Kuypers reading her poem “Genesis Eleven: the Tower of Babble”, on the last day the restaurant “Opal Divine’s Marina” in Austin (from a Panasonic Lumix T56 camera; Hue Cycling filter).

See YouTube video 4/21/19 on Easter of Janet Kuypers reading her poem “Genesis Eleven: the Tower of Babble”, on the last day the restaurant “Opal Divine’s Marina” in Austin (from a Panasonic Lumix T56 camera; Posterize filter).

See YouTube video 4/21/19 on Easter of Janet Kuypers reading her poem “Genesis Eleven: the Tower of Babble”, on the last day the restaurant “Opal Divine’s Marina” in Austin (from a Panasonic Lumix T56 camera; Threshold filter).

See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers 12/4/19 reading her Genesis poetry from the cc&d v293 Nov./Dec. 2019 issue/book “Coiled Cobra”, including her poems “Genesis Six-Nine: an Apocalypse/Doomsday Prepper’s Take”, “Genesis Eleven: the Tower of Babble”, and “Genesis Eighteen to Nineteen”, then eventually her Veterans Day poem “Keep our Country and Save Ourselves”,all read live (interspersed with Thom poetry) during her December 2018 Book Release Reading through Community Poetry! at Half Price Books in Austin (video filmed from a Panasonic Lumix 2500 camera); video posted on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram & Tumblr.

See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers 12/4/19 reading her Genesis poetry from the cc&d v293 Nov./Dec. 2019 issue/book “Coiled Cobra”, including her poems “Genesis Six-Nine: an Apocalypse/Doomsday Prepper’s Take”, “Genesis Eleven: the Tower of Babble”, and “Genesis Eighteen to Nineteen”, then eventually her Veterans Day poem “Keep our Country and Save Ourselves”,all read live (interspersed with Thom poetry) during her December 2018 Book Release Reading through Community Poetry! at Half Price Books in Austin (video filmed from a Panasonic Lumix T56 camera); video posted on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram & Tumblr.

See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading her poems &“Genesis Six-Nine: an Apocalypse/Doomsday Prepper’s Take”, “Genesis Eleven: the Tower of Babble”, and “Genesis Eighteen to Nineteen” from the Scars Publications 7-12 2019 cc&d issue collection book “Imagery of Place”, as one of the readings in her February 2020 Book Release Reading through Community Poetry! at Half Price Books in Austin (this video was filmed from a Panasonic Lumix 2500 camera; posted on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and Tumblr).

See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading her poems &“Genesis Six-Nine: an Apocalypse/Doomsday Prepper’s Take”, “Genesis Eleven: the Tower of Babble”, and “Genesis Eighteen to Nineteen” from the Scars Publications 7-12 2019 cc&d issue collection book “Imagery of Place”, as one of the readings in her February 2020 Book Release Reading through Community Poetry! at Half Price Books in Austin (this video was filmed from a Panasonic Lumix T56 camera; posted on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and Tumblr).

See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading her poems “Genesis Six-Nine: an Apocalypse /Doomsday Prepper’s Take”, “Genesis Eleven: the Tower of Babble”, “Genesis Eighteen to Nineteen”, and “Keep Our Country and Save Ourselves” from the v293 “Coiled Cobra” section in the cc&d July-December 2018 expanded issue collection book “Among the Debris” for The Café Gallery 9/1/20 Book Reading in The Café Gallery 2020 book reading series (this video was filmed from a Panasonic Lumix 2500 camera; on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and Tumblr).

See a Facebook live video stream of Janet Kuypers reading her poems “Genesis Six-Nine: an Apocalypse/Doomsday Prepper’s Take”, “Genesis Eleven: the Tower of Babble”, “Genesis Eighteen to Nineteen”, and “Keep Our Country and Save Ourselves” from the v293 “Coiled Cobra” section in the cc&d July-December 2018 expanded issue collection book “Among the Debris” for The Café Gallery 9/1/20 Book Reading in The Café Gallery 2020 book reading series (from a Samsung S9 camera).

Enjoy this YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading her poems “Genesis One”, “Genesis Two and Three”, and “Genesis Four: Cain and Abel, and sin from killing”, “Genesis Six-Nine: an Apocalypse/Doomsday Prepper’s Take”, “Genesis Eleven: the Tower of Babble”, and “Genesis Eighteen to Nineteen” from the CyberWit.net Janet Kuypers 2023 poetry book “Testament” on 4/30/23 in front of St. Mary’s Cathedral in Austin for the 2023 Poetry Bomb (this video was filmed from a Panasonic Lumix 2500 camera; on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, Instagram, and Tumblr). You can also enjoy this YouTube video that was filmed from a Panasonic Lumix T56 camera; on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, Instagram, and Tumblr). You can also enjoy this as a Facebook live video stream that was filmed and streamed from a Samsung S9 camera; on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Instagram, and Tumblr). #janetkuypers #janetkuyperspoetry #janetkuypersbookreading #janetkuyperspoetrybomb

Genesis Eleven: the Tower of Babble Janet Kuypers 1/11/19 At the beginning there was the great town of Babble; back then all from different lands spoke the same language and speech, and all revered this one sacred place. Eventually the people in the town of Babble realized that the only place where different social types can genuinely get along with each other is in heaven*, so they decided to build a tower, one so tall, taller than any skyscraper you could ever imagine, so that it could actually reach heaven, and people could be like gods. So people from different lands came together to create brick and mortar for this tower to the sky; now, they say that once they all had one language, but with enough time apart, people create new words for new things in their different environments, and before you knew it, no one could understand each other at all. Even the valley girls and the girls from Sherwood Ohio, even though their towns were close, they seemed to speak different languages. “What’s your damage?” the Ohio girl would ask. “Like, gag me with a spoon!” the valley girl would answer, as they would babble... “Did you have a brain tumor for breakfast?” “Like, take a chill pill.” “You’re such a pillowcase.” “But you’re like, grody to the max!” And they would continue to trade insults that no one could understand. When thinking about the Tower to heaven in Babble, these girls could at least agree, still stating in their dialects, “This so like, so totally tubular!” and “This is so very!” As people came from far and wide to build the bricks for this great building, men from the east came, exclaiming this was “Ono što mi treba u životu,” while women from the south and east said this building to heaven was “Mga Kailangang ispiritwal sa buhay” — and “ceea ce avem nevoie în viaţă” was extolled by women from the north and mid-east, while men from the west and south exclaimed that the Tower of Babble was “que necesitamos en la vida...” Wine-filled men from the north even sang that this tower and get-together was “was wir auf das Leben brauchen,” but no one understood a single word from each other, even if they were all probably saying the exact same thing. More people came from other lands, saying more things no one could comprehend, and so it came to pass that no one knew what materials to use in this sacred town to build the best bricks for this imagined tower. So no, they never built their tower to the sky, no stairway to heaven has been made in any giant tower. But it’s good to know that even though there are plenty of language barriers, humankind can share a station at the edges of our sky to learn not only about the earth from way up high, but also about the earth deep at the bottoms of the seas, and all over this land, making earth a bit more like the one place we all imagine, the one place we were never so impractical as to try to build a tower to. We can all do things here to make earth a little more like heaven.   * Quote from Jason Dean in the movie Heathers. Quoted argumentative phrases are also from Frank Zappa’s song Valley Girl and the movie Heathers.

Copyright © Janet Kuypers. All rights reserved. No material may be reprinted without express permission.

Like Janet Kuypers’ writing on any of these links below: