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

Watch this Youtube video of this poem read live outdoors at the Lincoln Park Zoo for the 2013 Poetry Bomb 4/28/13 (Kodak)

Watch this Youtube video of this poem read live outdoors at the Lincoln Park Zoo for the 2013 Poetry Bomb 4/28/13 (Samsung)

See the Samsung video upside-down, all raw video currently posted at facebook, posted immediately after poetry was read during the 2013 Poetry Bomb

Download this in a free 7/28/13 chapbook the Lincoln Park Zoo chapbook, w/ the Periodic Table of Poetry poems.

See YouTube video of Kuypers reading the poem from Hydrogen to Nothing live 5/29/13 at the Café Gallery in Chicago (Canon) with 2011 Hotel music “playing with blocks and whotnot” by the HA!Man of South Africa

See YouTube video of Kuypers reading the poem from Hydrogen to Nothing live 5/29/13 at the Café Gallery in Chicago (Sony) with 2011 Hotel music “playing with blocks and whotnot” by the HA!Man of South Africa

See YouTube video of Kuypers hosting the open mic 5/29/13 at Gallery Cabaret’s the Café Gallery in Chicago - and performing this poem

See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading her poem from Hydrogen to Nothing live 6/26/13 at the open mic the Café Gallery in Chicago (Sony)

See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading her poem from Hydrogen to Nothing live 6/26/13 at the open mic the Café Gallery in Chicago (Canon)

See YouTube video of Kuypers hosting the open mic 6/26/13 at Gallery Cabaret’s the Café Gallery in Chicago — and reading this poem

See YouTube video of Chicago poet Janet Kuypers reading her Periodic Table poems “from Hydrogen to Nothing” (bonus poem for 1, H), and “Bismuth” (83, Bi) from her book “The Periodic Table of Poetry” 2/10/18 at Georgetown’s “Poetry Aloud” (this video was filmed from a Panasonic Lumix 2500 camera; posted on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, Instagram, and Tumblr). #janetkuypers #janetkuyperspoetry #janetkuypersbookreading #janetkuypersperiodictablepoem #janetkuypersperiodictablepoetry

See YouTube video of Chicago poet Janet Kuypers reading her Periodic Table poems “from Hydrogen to Nothing” (bonus poem for #1, H), and “Bismuth” (#83, Bi) from her book “The Periodic Table of Poetry” 2/10/18 at Georgetown’s “Poetry Aloud” (this video was filmed from a Panasonic Lumix T56 camera; posted on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, Instagram, and Tumblr). #janetkuypers #janetkuyperspoetry #janetkuypersbookreading #janetkuypersperiodictablepoem #janetkuypersperiodictablepoetry

See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers’ October 2018 Book Release Reading 10/3/18, where she read her “The Periodic Table of Poetry” poems “Bromine”, “Iodine”, “Indium”, “Scandium”, “Xenon”, and “From Hydrogen to Nothing” from the “Lincoln Park Zoo 4/28/13 Poetry Bomb” chapbook reading in the cc&d v5 boss lady poetry collection book “On the Edge”, in Community Poetry at Half Price Books (this video was filmed from a Panasonic Lumix T56 camera).

See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers’ October 2018 Book Release Reading 10/3/18, where she read her “The Periodic Table of Poetry” poems “Bromine”, “Iodine”, “Indium”, “Scandium”, “Xenon”, and “From Hydrogen to Nothing” from the “Lincoln Park Zoo 4/28/13 Poetry Bomb” chapbook reading in the cc&d v5 boss lady poetry collection book “On the Edge”, in Community Poetry at Half Price Books (this video was filmed from a Panasonic Lumix T56 camera, with a Sepia Tone filter).

See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers’ October 2018 Book Release Reading 10/3/18, where she read her “The Periodic Table of Poetry” poems “Bromine”, “Iodine”, “Indium”, “Scandium”, “Xenon”, and “From Hydrogen to Nothing” from the “Lincoln Park Zoo 4/28/13 Poetry Bomb” chapbook reading in the cc&d v5 boss lady poetry collection book “On the Edge”, in Community Poetry at Half Price Books (this video was filmed from a Panasonic Lumix 2500 camera, with an Edge Detection filter).

See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers’ October 2018 Book Release Reading 10/3/18, where she read her “The Periodic Table of Poetry” poems “Bromine”, “Iodine”, “Indium”, “Scandium”, “Xenon”, and “From Hydrogen to Nothing” from the “Lincoln Park Zoo 4/28/13 Poetry Bomb” chapbook reading in the cc&d v5 boss lady poetry collection book “On the Edge”, in Community Poetry at Half Price Books (this video was filmed from a Panasonic Lumix 2500 camera, with a Threshold filter).

See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading her poems “From Hydrogen to Nothing” for National Nothing Day (1/16), “Opposite” for National Opposite Day (1/20), and “Ocean’s Call to Dive” for National Penguin Day (1/20) from her book “Every Event of the Year (Volume one: January-June)” live 1/18/20 the Austin “Open Mic Showcase” at Recycled Reads (w/ a Panasonic Lumix 2500 camera; on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and Tumblr).

See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading her poems “From Hydrogen to Nothing” for National Nothing Day (1/16), “Opposite” for National Opposite Day (1/20), and “Ocean’s Call to Dive” for National Penguin Day (1/20) from her book “Every Event of the Year (Volume one: January-June)” live 1/18/20 the Austin “Open Mic Showcase” at Recycled Reads (w/ a Panasonic Lumix T56 camera; on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and Tumblr).

See this YouTube video (posted 7/6/22, a Wednesday like The Café open mic dates) of Janet Kuypers reading her bonus Periodic Table bonus poem “from Hydrogen to Nothing” from the v197 7/22 Down in the Dirt issue/book “History, Banners and Flags” when visiting Chicago 6/24/22 for The Café Gallery Book Reading series (from a Panasonic Lumix 2500 camera w/ a Hue Cycling filter; on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, Instagram, and Tumblr). #janetkuypers #janetkuypersbookreading #janetkuyperspoem #janetkuypersperiodictablepoem #janetkuypersthecafegallery

See this YouTube video (posted 7/5/22, a Tuesday like The Café Gallery open mic dates) of Janet Kuypers reading her bonus Periodic Table bonus poem “from Hydrogen to Nothing” from the v197 7/22 Down in the Dirt issue/book “History, Banners and Flags” when visiting Chicago 6/24/22 for The Café Gallery Book Reading series (this video was filmed from a Panasonic Lumix 2500 camera; posted on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, Instagram, and Tumblr). #janetkuypers #janetkuypersbookreading #janetkuyperspoem #janetkuypersperiodictablepoem #janetkuypersthecafegallery

Enjoy this YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading her Twitter Verse Periodic Table poems “Hydrogen Three: Glow for Me” and “Hydrogen laced with Pi”, then her Periodic Table poems “Hydrogen Cyanide” and “From Hydrogen to Nothing” from the Down in the Dirt 5-8/22 issue collection book “The Final Frontier” (that also appear in the Janet Kuypers poetry books “Twitter Verse Periodic Table Poetry” and “Periodic Table Poetry”) on 11/2/22 on the 1st Wednesday of the month in honor of ‘Community Poetry’ (filmed from a Panasonic Lumix 2500 camera; on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, Instagram, and Tumblr). This was also filmed fro a Panasonic Lumix 2500 camera & given a Hue Cycling, which was posted on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, Instagram, and Tumblr). #janetkuypers #janetkuyperspoetry #janetkuypersbookreading #janetkuypersperiodictablepoem #janetkuyperstwitterverseperiodictablepoem

from Hydrogen to Nothing Janet Kuypers from the “Periodic Table of Poetry” series, based on “Now you’re Nothing to me”, written 5/12/08 - 5/14/08 this poem written 3/4/13 - 3/6/12 Love is like tap water, free flowing... Remember when you were little, just put a glass under the faucet and quench your thirst? Wait a minute, it’s not like that. Water isn’t free. You even have to pay for the water in your own home, and it’s not even clean. What you’re getting is dirty. And you still have to pay for it. # You know, they say us humans are like seventy percent water. And when I think of you, and all the time we were together — well, if you’re seventy percent water, I have to remember that it wasn’t pure and clean with you. If this was love; if this was you — it wasn’t free. I’m still paying for it. # I mean, they say we’re mostly made of water, Hydrogen, oxygen... But it’s like you were an electron from Hydrogen to me, one electron, spinning around the center of me, always keeping an all too tight grip on me. I would think I was free, and there you would be, that one presence I could never get rid of. You were spinning, orbiting, spinning my head... You were keeping your distance, but still, you made sure you were always there, holding me down. If we’re mostly made of water, and you spun around me like in that Hydrogen atom, you kept me gasping for air. I needed that oxygen... I know water is Hydrogen and oxygen, I know I’ve got it in me, I’ve just got to keep myself together after dealing with what you’ve done to me. # When we’re seventy percent water, by mass we’re only eleven percent Hydrogen. So most of the mass in our body may be oxygen... But by an atomic percentage we’re sixty-seven percent Hydrogen, meaning most of the atoms in our bodies are Hydrogen. Just one electron, spinning around that nucleus, just spinning, and never letting go. # When I now think of you, and the fact that you made me feel like nothing — well, I think of what you’re made of, and I have to remember: we’re all made of atoms, protons and neutrons, infinitely small, wound tightly together in the nucleus surrounded at a comparatively vast distance by occasional, tiny, orbiting electrons. So when I think of you I have to remember that you’re made of those atoms with really tiny cores — and those atoms are filled with so much space that you’re mostly made of nothing. When I think of you, I remind myself of this. When I think of the nothingness you made me feel, and the fact that you should mean nothing to me, this is how I must think of you.

Copyright © 2025 Janet Kuypers.

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

Like Janet Kuypers’ writing on any of these links below: