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See YouTube video live 11/05/08, finale feature in Chicago at St. Paul’s, a desanctified church

See complete St. Paul’s 11/05/08 show in Chicago, with 11 poems live, filmed from above in the choir seating of this desanctified church (23:58, from the Internet Archive)

See complete feature video from the St. Paul’s 11/05/08 show in Chicago (23:58) from the Internet Archive

Listen (2:17) to this studio recording from the DMJ Art Connection or Listen to & download this track from the DMJ Art Connection

Enjoy this YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading her v217 3/24 Down in the Dirt issue/book “The Darkness Within” poems “Decorating the Lockers” (+ 11/5/08 show image), “Wedding Lost” (+ 11/5/08 show image), & “Loved You the Most” (+ 5/3/02 show image) during her “Poetic License 3/3/24 global open mic” she hosted through a Zoom meeting & a Facebook event page (from a Panasonic Lumix 2500 camera, and posted on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, Instagram, and Tumblr). Also enjoy this as a Facebook live video stream that was filmed & streamed from a Samsung S9 camera with THE REAL GLITCH filter; posted on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Instagram, and Tumblr. #janetkuypers #janetkuypersbookreading #janetkuyperspoetry #janetkuyperspoeticlicense

decorating the lockers Days when we sat in the gold gym, Friday afternoons, hot Indian summer days. Days with a pep assembly, there would be a contest, which grade could cheer the loudest? Those were the days when the cheerleaders lead us on in school spirit, and we wished the football team luck in the evening’s game. The cheerleaders even decorated the lockers for each football player the night before a game. Streamers. Signs. I think of this now, one of those players went professional, moved across the country, made it big. Had a friend from high school visit. And they drove out on a road together; could they still hear the cheering, the screaming, faster and faster, down the road, they’re winning the big game, faster and faster, then black. The hero walked away from the twisted mangled wreck, to find his friend couldn’t hear the cheering. No one assembles for him now, for the loss of his friend. Why did the hero get all the attention? There was no screaming, just the low, dull moan in his head as he ended his own suffering, his own guilt. And we assembled again once more for him, this time not on a sunny Friday afternoon, not anticipating something. The anticipation is gone. All we can cling to are the lockers covered in streamers, the cheering. Copyright Janet Kuypers. All rights reserved. No material may be reprinted without express permission.