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

See YouTube video of open mic host Janet Kuypers reading her 2019 poem “Key Imprisonment and Poetry” in the intro for starting off the “Poetic License” open mic she hosted at Austin’s “Recycled Reads” 7/7/19 (filmed from a Panasonic Lumix 2500 camera).

See YouTube video of open mic host Janet Kuypers reading her 2019 poem “Key Imprisonment and Poetry” in the intro for starting off the “Poetic License” open mic she hosted at Austin’s “Recycled Reads” 7/7/19 (Panasonic Lumix 2500 camera; Posterize).

See YouTube video of open mic host Janet Kuypers reading her 2019 poem “Key Imprisonment and Poetry” in the intro for starting off the “Poetic License” open mic she hosted at Austin’s “Recycled Reads” 7/7/19 (filmed from a Panasonic Lumix T56 camera).

See YouTube video of open mic host Janet Kuypers reading her 2019 poem “Key Imprisonment and Poetry” in the intro for starting off the “Poetic License” open mic she hosted at Austin’s “Recycled Reads” 7/7/19 (Panasonic Lumix T56 camera; Sepia Tone).

See a Facebook live video stream of Janet Kuypers reading her bonus July poem “Key Imprisonment and Poetry” (written 7/4, on Independence Day), read from the Janet Kuypers poetry book “Every Event of the Year (Volume Two: July-December)” on 7/4/20 as a prequel teaser to the “Poetic License open mic 7/5/20 home edition” (video filmed from a Samsung S9 camera). #janetkuyperspoeticlicense

See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading her poems “Until They Talked of Galvanism” and “Key Imprisonment and Poetry” from the Down in the Dirt 7/20 book “Gone Fishing” during the “Poetic License open mic 7/5/20 home edition” she hosted through a Zoom meeting and a Facebook event page (filmed from a Panasonic Lumix 2500 camera; posted on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and Tumblr). #janetkuyperspoeticlicense

See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading her poems “Until They Talked of Galvanism” and “Key Imprisonment and Poetry” from the Down in the Dirt 7/20 book “Gone Fishing” during the “Poetic License open mic 7/5/20 home edition” she hosted through a Zoom meeting and a Facebook event page (filmed from a Panasonic Lumix 2500 & Sepia; on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and Tumblr). #janetkuyperspoeticlicense

See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading her poems “Until They Talked of Galvanism” and “Key Imprisonment and Poetry” from the Down in the Dirt 7/20 book “Gone Fishing” during the “Poetic License open mic 7/5/20 home edition” she hosted through a Zoom meeting and a Facebook event page (filmed from a Panasonic Lumix 2500 & Threshold; on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and Tumblr). #janetkuyperspoeticlicense

See a Facebook live video stream of Janet Kuypers reading her poems “Until They Talked of Galvanism” and “Key Imprisonment and Poetry” from the Down in the Dirt 7/20 book “Gone Fishing” during the “Poetic License open mic 7/5/20 home edition” she hosted through a Zoom meeting and a Facebook event page (this video was filmed from a Samsung S9 camera). #janetkuyperspoeticlicense

See a YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading her poems “Until They Talked of Galvanism”, “Key Imprisonment and Poetry”, “Obfuscate the Truth”, “Our Population, Our Pain, and Our Growth”, and “Knowingly Live, Purposely Live” from the v173 “Gone Fishing section of the Down in the Dirt 5-8 2020 collection book “Outside the Box” live 8/18/20 for the “Builders Book Club” Tuesday nights reading series (video filmed fromn a Panasonic Lumix 2500 camera; posted on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and Tumblr).

See a YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading her poems “Until They Talked of Galvanism”, “Key Imprisonment and Poetry”, “Obfuscate the Truth”, “Our Population, Our Pain, and Our Growth”, and “Knowingly Live, Purposely Live” from the v173 “Gone Fishing section of the Down in the Dirt 5-8 2020 collection book “Outside the Box” live 8/18/20 for the “Builders Book Club” Tuesday nights reading series (video filmed from a Panasonic Lumix 2500 & Hue Cycling; on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and Tumblr).

See a YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading her poems “Until They Talked of Galvanism”, “Key Imprisonment and Poetry”, “Obfuscate the Truth”, “Our Population, Our Pain, and Our Growth”, and “Knowingly Live, Purposely Live” from the v173 “Gone Fishing section of the Down in the Dirt 5-8 2020 collection book “Outside the Box” live 8/18/20 for the “Builders Book Club” Tuesday nights reading series (video filmed from a Panasonic Lumix 2500 camera & Sepia Tone; on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and Tumblr).

See a Facebook live video stream of Janet Kuypers reading her poems “Until They Talked of Galvanism”, “Key Imprisonment and Poetry”, “Obfuscate the Truth”, “Our Population, Our Pain, and Our Growth”, and “Knowingly Live, Purposely Live” from the v173 “Gone Fishing section of the Down in the Dirt 5-8 2020 collection book “Outside the Box” live 8/18/20 for the “Builders Book Club” Tuesday nights reading series (video from a Samsung S9 camera).

Key Imprisonment and Poetry Janet Kuypers 7/4/19 It’s not like we got our independence free and clear when Jefferson finished editing the Declaration of Independence on July 4th, 1776 — because the British don’t take defeat so lightly. It didn’t matter that the U.S.A. enacted their constitution and had multiple terms from 4 presidents... because freedom isn’t free, and the Brits so hold grudges. They took the battle to our shores in what we call the war of 1812. Now, at one point the lawyer Francis Scott Key found out from his brother-in-law that the honorable Doctor Beanes was taken hostage by the British. Now this Doctor Beanes was a straight-up righteous guy, so Key even went to President Madison to tell him (yes, he actually went to the President), and he said that they had to get Beanes back. Madison sets up Key with a man named Skinner, and they went to the British, on their boat, so they’d talk, and rationalize and schmooze, ‘til the Brits said they’d return Beanes to them. But as the English and the Americans on the boat were commiserating and being friendly and all, Key and Skinner overheard the British talking about how they were planning to attack Baltimore the next week — they even had maps and plans all drawn out that Key and Skinner could see. This freaked the British, once they realized they revealed their plans... so the Brits decided to keep Key and Skinner and Beanes hostage, so they couldn’t reveal the British attack plans to America. The British held them hostage for a full week, and as they waited in their cell the British would taunt them, and say things like, ‘I hope you take a good look at that precious U.S. flag of yours on that hill, ‘cuz soon it’ll be gone!’ When September 13th, 1814 came, the attack began on Baltimore, with mass fire, many cannons bombarding Fort McHenry, and Francis Scott Key stayed up all night to watch the suspenseful horrors. When Skinner and Beanes woke up, they asked, ‘is the flag still there?’ Dawn light breaks — the smoke clears, and all of the sudden Francis Scoot Key sees this giant U.S. flag still waving in the wind over Fort McHenry. ‘Yeah, it sure is!’ he responded — he was so overwhelmed by the emotion of the moment, that he then started to write a poem about it. Eventually, the Brits set them free, and free from their captors, Key worked the whole first night finishing his poem. So the next day he asks his brother-in-law to come and read his poem, because it was something he really needed to share. When his brother-in-law saw the poem he said, ‘this is the best poem ever!’, and thought, ‘we have to publish this... now — like, right now!’ Then he thought, ‘it should be put to that melody, that To Anacreon in Heaven song, that British drinking song!’ So they distributed this song to people, and people in town would try to sing it, ‘Oh, say, can you see...’, and the more people saw it, the more people thought this melody could work. Eventually, the ‘song’ ended up becoming an amazing hit. A poem, from a man held in captivity on a British ship, waiting to see if the U.S. flag would survive through the night. One man wrote a poem about it, and as a joke to Britain, they sang this poem to a convoluted British drinking song, making this poem an in-your-face that the U.S. will always prevail.

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