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video See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading her poems “Valkyrie attempts(for the 10/14/1944 date of the suicide of Erwin Rommel) and “Kill with Impunity(for the 10/7/1900 birthday of Heinrich Himmler) from the Down in the Dirt 10/20 v176 book “The End of the World” live 9/29/20 during the Spoken Word Paris/Online (this video was filmed from a Panasonic Lumix 2500 camera; on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, and Tumblr).
video See a Facebook live video stream of Janet Kuypers reading her poems “Valkyrie attempts” and “Kill with Impunity” from the Down in the Dirt 10/20 v176 book “The End of the World” live 9/29/20 during the Spoken Word Paris / Spoken Word Online (video filmed and streamed live from a Samsung S9 camera).
video See a YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading her poems “One Would be Chosen(written 10/12 for the 1492 date Christopher Columbus Discovers America), “Farmer” and “Verdant Green(for 10/12, National Farmers Day), “Vacuum of Space(written 10/11, on and for the day in 1984 when astronaut Kathryn D. Sullivan boarded the Space Shuttle Challenger as the first American woman to perform a space walk), “No Bother(written 10/13, on and for Good Samaritan Day), “Valkyrie attempts(written 10/14 on 1944 date of the suicide of Erwin Rommel), “Everyone Will React(written the 3rd Tuesday of October, on and for National Face Your Fears Day), “Know they are Loved(written 10/16, on and for Global Cat Day), “You Don’t Expect It(written 10/17, on and for World Trauma Day), “Violent Endeavour(written 10/18, on the 1967 date the first space probe entered another planet’s atmosphere (Soviet Venera 4 to Venus), “Know they are Loved”, and “Every Day is Sweetest Day(written the 3rd Saturday of October, on and for Sweetest Day) from the Janet Kuypers poetry book “Every Event of the Year (Volume Two: July-December)” for The Café Gallery 10/20/20 Book Reading in The Café Gallery 2020 book reading series (this video was filmed from a Panasonic Lumix 2500 camera; posted on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, and Tumblr).
video See a Facebook live video stream of Janet Kuypers reading her poems “One Would be Chosen”, “Farmer”, “Verdant Green”, “Vacuum of Space”, “No Bother”, “Valkyrie attempts”, “Everyone Will React”, “Know they are Loved”, “You Don’t Expect It”, “Violent Endeavour”, and “Every Day is Sweetest Day” from the Janet Kuypers poetry book “Every Event of the Year (Volume Two: July-December)” for The Café Gallery 10/20/20 Book Reading in The Café Gallery 2020 book reading series (this video was filmed and streamed live from a Samsung S9 camera).
video See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading her poems “Valkyrie attempts”, “Kill with Impunity”, “No Bother”, “Noble Cause”, and “One hundred-fifty years. What did we learn.” from the v176 book “The End of the World” installment of the Down in the Dirt issue collection book “Late Frost” 1/6/21, during the usual time for Austin’s “Community Poetry” open mic (this video was filmed from a Panasonic Lumix 2500 camera, and posted on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, Instagram, and Tumblr). #janetkuypers   #janetkuyperspoetry   #janetkuypersbookreading
video See a Facebook live video stream of Janet Kuypers reading her poems “Valkyrie attempts”, “Kill with Impunity”, “No Bother”, “Noble Cause”, and “One hundred-fifty years. What did we learn.” from the v176 book “The End of the World” installment of the Down in the Dirt issue collection book “Late Frost” 1/6/21, during the usual time for Austin’s “Community Poetry” open mic (this video was filmed and streamed from a Samsung S9 camera). #janetkuypers   #janetkuyperspoetry   #janetkuypersbookreading

Valkyrie attempts

Janet Kuypers
10/14/19, on the 1944 date
of the suicide of Erwin Rommel

“In the absence of orders,
go find something and kill it.”
People have credited me
with those infamous words,
but in the art of war,
you have to make yourself
useful.

“How can you want to kill
something if you love it so?”

So if I love the Führer —
and I do —
how could I want him dead.
I opposed assassinating Hitler.
At least initially.

I may have been hopelessly
naïve to ask for one last chance
to end hostilities with Western
Allies, but my letter to him
took two weeks to arrive, after
17 July, when an Allied air attack
incapacitated me.

That wasn’t my way of exiting
their Valkyrie attempts 3 days
later, I had no idea their plans.
I believe they wanted my support,
but I could not give it, even if
I thought this was now a hopeless
war.

But if I knew of the conspirators
and said nothing, if I did not
report them and have them all killed,
then I am a conspirator too,
just as guilty as the conspirator
who repeatedly called out my name
in a delirium...

Maybe I am as guilty as a
conspirator who, only after torture,
named me as a participant.
I did not know my name was on a list
as the potential Reich President
after Hitler’s upheaval. But if I knew
it was the end,

I would only look for ways
to help Germany survive.
If that meant I would take
the helm, then so be it.
But conspirator or not,
I never wanted to kill him.
Never.

But after they surveilled me,
I knew they wanted me killed,
but I think Hitler knew that his
“Court of Military Honour” was only
a drumhead court-martial that
everyone knew was fake. That I
was too high

up the military ladder to be
thought of as against the Nazis.
Executing me as a traitor would
ruin the morale of the front line,
so they came to me and offered
me three choices.

They told me I could, one, go to
Hitler himself and plead my case,
two, I could go through this trial
(that I knew would mean not only
my execution and disgrace, but also
that of my staff and family too),
or three,

I could take my ow life.
I think they all knew that by my
not choosing option one, this
ensured I was guilty, but how
could I plea my case when I didn’t
report or kill the conspirators
myself?

My family would have suffered
even before a trial began.
And I wanted my wife to live,
I wanted her to have money for
her life, and my family, without me,
and so I took option three, so that
after I died

I would be given military honors,
because really, I was a hero.
I was never involved in a plot,
I loved the Führer. After I’m gone,
burn my body, so there will be
no evidence of my true end,
your ultimatum.

I may be an absolute pessimist
when I face the slightest problem,
but I was a strong leader, and my
initiative stopped enemy forces —
I took them by surprise. What was
constant was my love for Germany.
Remember that.


Copyright © Janet Kuypers.

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



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