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video See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers’ “Janet Kuypers feature 9/6/19 at Chicago’s In one Earshow sharing poetry from 2 books, reading her poetry (including this poem) from her “Every Event of the Year (Volume one: January-June)” book and her “(pheromones) haiku, Instagram, Twitter, and poetry” (this video was filmed from a Panasonic Lumix T56 camera); this video was posted on Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram & Tumblr.
video See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers’ “Janet Kuypers feature 9/6/19 at Chicago’s In one Earshow sharing poetry from 2 books, reading her poetry (including this poem) from her “Every Event of the Year (Volume one: January-June)” book and her “(pheromones) haiku, Instagram, Twitter, and poetry” (video from a Panasonic Lumix T56 camera, with a Posterize filter); this video was posted on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram & Tumblr.
video See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers’ “Janet Kuypers feature 9/6/19 at Chicago’s In one Earshow sharing poetry from 2 books, reading her poetry (including this poem) from her “Every Event of the Year (Volume one: January-June)” book and her “(pheromones) haiku, Instagram, Twitter, and poetry” (video from a Panasonic Lumix T56 camera, with a Sepia Tone filter); this video was posted on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram & Tumblr.
video See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers’ “Janet Kuypers feature 9/6/19 at Chicago’s In one Earshow sharing poetry from 2 books, reading her poetry (including this poem) from her “Every Event of the Year (Volume one: January-June)” book and her “(pheromones) haiku, Instagram, Twitter, and poetry” (video from a Panasonic Lumix T56 camera, with a Threshold filter); this video was posted on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram & Tumblr.
video See YouTube video in 2 parts on 9/28/19 of Janet Kuypers reading her poetry at the Poetry Aloud open mic in 3 parts, including her poem “Feeling of False Ownership” for Juneteenth from her poetry collection book “Every Event of the Year (Volume one: January-June)”, to a live audience at the Georgetown Public Library (video filmed from a Panasonic Lumix 2500 camera); this video was posted on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram & Tumblr.
video See YouTube video in 2 parts on 9/28/19 of Janet Kuypers reading her poetry at the Poetry Aloud open mic in 3 parts, including her poem “Feeling of False Ownership” for Juneteenth from her poetry collection book “Every Event of the Year (Volume one: January-June)”, to a live audience at the Georgetown Public Library (video filmed from a Panasonic Lumix T56 camera); this video was posted on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram & Tumblr.
video See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading her poems “Cesium for Certainty”, “Voluptuous, and Intelligent Too”, “Escape to Peace”, “Sledgehammers and Cheers”, “Orange Clouds and Blood-Red Sunsets”, “Kept my Eye on You”, “Vanquished by the Sleeping Giant”, and “Feeling of False Ownership” from the Down in the Dirt 6/20 book “Existential Threats” during the “Poetic License open mic 6/7/20 home edition” she hosted through a Facebook event page (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 “Cesium for Certainty”, “Voluptuous, and Intelligent Too”, “Escape to Peace”, “Sledgehammers and Cheers”, “Orange Clouds and Blood-Red Sunsets”, “Kept my Eye on You”, “Vanquished by the Sleeping Giant”, and “Feeling of False Ownership” from the Down in the Dirt 6/20 book “Existential Threats” during the “Poetic License open mic 6/7/20 home edition” she hosted through a Facebook event page (from a Samsung S9 camera).
video See a Facebook live video stream of Janet Kuypers reading her poem “Feeling of False Ownership”, written on 6/19/19 - Juneteenth, read ON June 19th - Juneteenth - from the Janet Kuypers poetry book “Every Event of the Year (Volume one: January-June)” at Circle Brewing Company as a bonus reading for the “Poetic License open mic 6/7/20 home edition” she hosted in Austin through a Facebook event page (this video was filmed from a Samsung S9 camera). #janetkuyperspoeticlicense
video See a Facebook live video stream of Janet Kuypers reading her poem “Feeling of False Ownership”, written on 6/19/19 - Juneteenth, read ON June 19th - Juneteenth - from the Janet Kuypers poetry book “Every Event of the Year (Volume one: January-June)” at Circle Brewing Company as a bonus reading for the “Poetic License open mic 6/7/20 home edition” she hosted in Austin through a Facebook event page (this video was filmed from a Samsung S9 camera). #janetkuyperspoeticlicense
See a YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading her poems “Cesium for Certainty”, “Voluptuous, and Intelligent Too”, “Escape to Peace”, “Sledgehammers and Cheers”, “Orange Clouds and Blood-Red Sunsets”, “Kept my Eye on You”, “Vanquished by the Sleeping Giant”, and “Feeling of False Ownership” from the v172Existential Threats” section of the Down in the Dirt 5-8 2020 collection book “Outside the Box” live 8/25/20 for The Café Gallery 2020 book reading series (Panasonic Lumix 2500 camera; on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and Tumblr).
video See a Facebook live video stream of Janet Kuypers reading her poems “Cesium for Certainty”, “Voluptuous, and Intelligent Too”, “Escape to Peace”, “Sledgehammers and Cheers”, “Orange Clouds and Blood-Red Sunsets”, “Kept my Eye on You”, “Vanquished by the Sleeping Giant”, and “Feeling of False Ownership” from the v172Existential Threats section of the Down in the Dirt 5-8 2020 collection book “Outside the Box” live 8/25/20 for The Café Gallery 2020 book reading series (this video was filmed live and streamed from a Samsung S9 camera).

Feeling of False Ownership

Janet Kuypers
6/19/19 (written on Juneteenth,
the only known day to celebrate
the ending of slavery in the U.S.)

They say that they gave us human rights months ago
(isn’t it funny, having to pass laws to give us rights —
don’t we have inalienable rights? Where did they go?)...

but still, the farther south you traveled in this country,
the harder it was for white men to treat us as human.
In the Midwest, all the way to Chicago, we were equals,

but it seems that Texas, in particular, didn’t want to shake
their feeling of false ownership, and we had to pay for it.
Maybe it took too long for Lincoln’s Proclamation to reach

Texas, but it wasn’t until June 19th when Union General
Gordon Granger read “General Order No. 3” in Galveston,
that stated that we were free. General order number 3.

Those four words are music to my ears, thought I’m still
blown away that a war had to be fought, proclamations
had to be made across all of these states to proclaim

something we’ve known in our hearts, our souls, forever.
When this day finally came to us, call it on Juneteenth,
it really did lift each and every voice up to sing, hallelujah.


Copyright © Janet Kuypers.

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



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