Scars Publications and Design
Editor@scars.tv
http://scars.tv
in conjunction with Penny Dreadful Press
and assistance from Freedom & Strength Foundation, Troy Press, Hawthorne Press & Dried Roses Press
first edition
printed in the United States of America
copyright @ 2004 Scars Publications and Design
writings @ 1979-2004 Janet Kuypers
book design @ 1998-2004 Scars Publications and Design
This book, as a whole, is fiction, and no correlation should be made between events in the book and events in real life. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without the permission in writing from the publisher.
Information about past books is available upon request through Scars Publications and Design. Materials from the literary magazines “Children, Churches and Daddies” and “Down in the Dirt” are available on line at http://scars.tv, as are .mp3 files, .ra files, .aif files, .au files, .wav files .mov and mpeg files of Kuypers, both reading her work and singing with three sets of musicians.
Oeuvre is published through Scars Publications and Design, whose publisher is a member/minister through the Universal Life Church. Scars Publications and Design, the logo and associated graphics @ 1979 - 2004. All rights reserved. Kuypers and Scars Publications and Design welcome your comments, tips, compliments or complaints. Direct all comments and suggestions to the e-mail addresses listed above.
The definition of oeuvre (the works of a writer, painter, or the like, taken as a whole) is from the Websters Unabridged 2001 Dictionary.
I always enjoy the multitudinous manifestations of Janet Kuypers’ oeuvre. I asked her one day if she had any video of herself I could use on my Speer Presents TV show. I figured she might have some footage of herself behind a mic at a Chicago poetry reading. In short-order she mailed me a VHS that set me back on my heels. It was like she collaborated with Jean-Luc Godard and Francois Truffaut. The segments were highly creative and she had dashed them off special for me. I realized then that she can do anything she sets her mind on. And she produces with a rapid-fire style which accounts for her prolificacy. But her snappy productivity does not impair her aim. She reminds me of Atticus Finch in Harper Lee’s novel “To Kill A Mockingbird”. Atticus is a dead shot with a rifle. If he shoots fifteen times and misses once he figures he wasted ammunition. When Kuypers draws a bead on a subject she keeps it in her cross hairs until she is ready to pull the trigger. She is a markswoman with words. And she is undaunted. If she is hurt on the way she feels decorated by the scars. She will tackle a worthy opponent or belch out loud with no regrets. She gives meaning to life by documenting the nuances of relationships, the ones that worked and the ones that went askew. She has such empathy with others that someone can tell her a story and she will absorb that experience. She can assume the point of view of a farmer losing connection with the land, a rape survivor, an accident victim, a prescription drug user, or an Army repairman watching Cubans behind a razor wire fence. This volume is a celebration of a body of work, starting with her first poem “Under the Sea” and moving to recent poems that set the watermark for this point in her development. It is like watching a storm of creativity develop from a gentle dust devil to a full-blown tornado. Take time with this book. It contains over two decades of artistic ferment. The world is a better place because Kuypers uses her gifts to create. If, for example, she had taken up the thompson machine gun, instead of the camera, the computer, publishing, and design, many of us would be dead. Kuypers is divinely inspired and I am one of the cherubim singing her praises.