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


The Things They Did To You
Listen to & download Janet Kuypers - The Things They Did To You - Amber Beads this track from the DMJ Art Connection, or download ANY track from the CD “The Things They Did To You” through iTunes.
video
See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading her poem “Amber Beads” (2:01) live at the Café 2/26/08 in Chicago (this video was posted on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, Instagram, and Tumblr). #janetkuypers #janetkuyperspoem
the poetry audio CD set“HopeChest in the Attic” Order this iTunes track from the poetry audio CD Hope Chest In The Attic 13 Years of Poetry & Prose ...Or order the entire CD set from iTunes: Janet Kuypers - Etc
video See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading her 3 poems Robert, I Have Learned and Amber Beads 7/31/16 at the Austin open mic Kick Butt Poetry (this video was filmed from a Canon Power Shot camera).
video See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading her 3 poems Robert, I Have Learned and Amber Beads 7/31/16 at the Austin open mic Kick Butt Poetry (this video was filmed from a Sony camera).
video See YouTube video 2/4/17 of Janet Kuypers at the Bahá’í Faith Center (Canon Power Shot SX60) reading her poem “Amber Beads” (this video was filmed from a Canon Power Shot SX60 camera; posted on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, Instagram, and Tumblr). #janetkuypers #janetkuyperspoem
video See YouTube video 2/4/17 of Janet Kuypers at the Bahá’í Faith Center (Canon Power Shot SX700) reading her poem “Amber Beads” (this video was filmed from a Canon Power Shot SX700 camera; posted on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, Instagram, and Tumblr). #janetkuypers #janetkuyperspoem
video See YouTube video of Chicago poet Janet Kuypers reading her poems “Amber Beads”, “Childhood Memories One”, and “Chances One: Yes, It’s Yes” from her book “Chapter 38 (v2)” 5/19/18 at Austin’s “Recycled Reads” open mic (filmed from a Panasonic Lumix 2500 camera).
video See YouTube video of Chicago poet Janet Kuypers reading her poems “Amber Beads”, “Childhood Memories One”, and “Chances One: Yes, It’s Ye” from her book “Chapter 38 (v2)” 5/19/18 at Austin’s “Recycled Reads” open mic (filmed from a Panasonic Lumix T56 camera).
video See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading her poem “Volumes in Flames while the Soul Flourishes” from her poetry book “Every Event of the Year (Volume one: January-June)”, my poem “Amber Beads” from the Scars Publications 2019 reprint of the cc&d magazine v184 May 2008 issue-book “That was the Time”, and her poem “Such a Surreal, Ephemeral Feel” from her poetry book “(pheromones) haiku, Instagram, Twitter, and poetry” during the 9/15/19 at “Spoken and Heard” open mic in Austin (this video was filmed from a Panasonic Lumix T56 video camera, and this video was also posted on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram & Tumblr).
video See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading her poem “Volumes in Flames while the Soul Flourishes” from her poetry book “Every Event of the Year (Volume one: January-June)”, my poem “Amber Beads” from the Scars Publications 2019 reprint of the cc&d magazine v184 May 2008 issue-book “That was the Time”, and her poem “Such a Surreal, Ephemeral Feel” from her poetry book “(pheromones) haiku, Instagram, Twitter, and poetry” during the 9/15/19 at “Spoken and Heard” open mic in Austin (this video was filmed from a Panasonic Lumix 2500 video camera, and this video was also posted on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram & Tumblr).
video See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading her poems “ends of the earth”, “Listen to Life”, “Amber Beads”, her prose “Driving By His House”, and her poems “Andrew Hettinger”, “Death”, “Anything for the Liquor Fix”, “Chess Game Again”, and “Children, Churches, and Daddies”, in set 4 from the cc&d July-December 2018 expanded issue collection book “Among the Debris” during the “Poetic License open mic 6/7/20 home edition” she hosted in Austin through a Facebook event page (this video was from a Panasonic Lumix 2500 camera, and was posted on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and Tumblr).
video See a Facebook live video stream of Janet Kuypers reading her poems “ends of the earth”, “Listen to Life”, “Queueing in Line and Shaping Your Life”, “Amber Beads”, her prose “Driving By His House”, and her poems “Andrew Hettinger”, “Death”, “Anything for the Liquor Fix”, “Chess Game Again”, and “Children, Churches, and Daddies”, in set 4 from the cc&d July-December 2018 expanded issue collection book “Among the Debris” during the “Poetic License open mic 6/7/20 home edition” she hosted in Austin, but globally through a Facebook event page (from a Samsung S9 camera).

Amber Beads

As the flames engulfed
my worldly possessions
my everything
seemed to disappear.
But I did not cry
for the loss of the money -
I cried for the
photographs,
and the poems, and the amber beads.

I love you, mother,
and I love the mother
who died while I
rested in your womb.
Sandy tells me stories
of visiting Grandma
and eating pickles.
And I remember
every spring,
every Mother’s Day,
you would diligently
plant flowers
around the
Bakutis name.
I have learned
to love her
without ever seeing
her face.

Joseph tells me
that I seem like
my mother
and I only pray to God
that he’s right.
For then my existence
would keep the love
and the caring alive
in a kind of living
that no strike of a match
that no burning building
that no mere mortal
could destroy.


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





This piece is also in the book
Hope Chest in the Attic.

hope chest in the attic hope chest in the attic