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

See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers, while hosting the Poetry Aloud open mic 4/27/19 in Georgetown TX, reads her poems “Xystus to Foundation” (originally written about the Notre Dame) and “Quintessential Symbol” (about the Venus de Milo statue), then her poem “Jihadists and Astrophysics”, read from her 2014-2016 Chicago poetry performance art book “A Year-Long Journey”, all read to a live audience for National Poetry Month (this video was filmed from a Panasonic Lumix 2500 camera).

See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers, while hosting the Poetry Aloud open mic 4/27/19 in Georgetown TX, reads her poems “Xystus to Foundation” (originally written about the Notre Dame) and “Quintessential Symbol” (about the Venus de Milo statue), then her poem “Jihadists and Astrophysics”, read from her 2014-2016 Chicago poetry performance art book “A Year-Long Journey”, all read to a live audience for National Poetry Month (this video was filmed from a Panasonic Lumix T56 camera).

See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading her poem “Quintessential Symbol” her first poem in the April 2021 v308 issue of cc&d’s paperback book “The Garden of Eden”, plus her two new poems, “On the Surface” and “Universe’s Lost Love”, at the “Poetic License virtual open mic 4/4/21” she hosted through a Zoom meeting and a Facebook event page (this video was filmed from a Panasonic Lumix 2500 camera; on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, Instagram and Tumblr). #janetkuypers #janetkuyperspoetry #janetkuyperspoeticlicense

See a Facebook live video stream of Janet Kuypers reading her poem “Quintessential Symbol” her first poem in the April 2021 v308 issue of cc&d’s paperback book “The Garden of Eden”, plus her two new poems, “On the Surface” and “Universe’s Lost Love”, at the “Poetic License virtual open mic 4/4/21” she hosted w/ a Zoom meeting & a Facebook event page (filmed & streamed w/ a Samsung S9 camera). #janetkuyperspoetry #janetkuyperspoeticlicense

See this YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading her poems “Join Me”, “Quintessential Symbol”, and “Just Read a Book” from the Scars Publications 1-4 2021 cc&d issue collection book “What Lies on the Other Side” 5/27/21 at Austin Poetry Society’s “New World Poetry” open mic (video from a Panasonic Lumix 2500 camera; posted on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, Instagram, and Tumblr).  #janetkuypers #janetkuyperspoetry #janetkuypersbookreading

See this Facebook live video stream of Janet Kuypers reading her poems “Join Me”, “Quintessential Symbol”, and “Just Read a Book” from the Scars Publications 1-4 2021 cc&d issue collection book “What Lies on the Other Side” 5/27/21 at Austin Poetry Society’s “New World Poetry” open mic; (this video was filmed and streamed from a Samsung S9 camera). #janetkuypers #janetkuyperspoetry #janetkuypersbookreading

Quintessential Symbol Janet Kuypers 4/6/19 They first sculpted me from marble half-dressed, and looking perplexed — and after their empire lay in ruin, I lay in a cave, broken and forgotten... until some fool found me, found a league of men to piece me together again, I was only partially dressed, and after they came to “save” me, they left my arms shattered, they left me nothing to defend myself with. You all adore me now, call me Venus though others may prefer me to be Aphrodite... They all think I am all about love revealing myself half-naked to men, and I become the quintessential symbol of love to you fools — but you keep forgetting, they never gave me my arms back, to protect myself from your wrath. I am now displayed topless, and I cannot even cover myself, or protect myself from your lurid eyes. You like me defenseless, forced to stay still as you expose me and decide to call my nudity “art”. Tell me I’m wrong, that’s what you men do — you took my arms, but... what was in my left hand, the hand that was meant to write with such force? Well, I held an apple. Some may say an apple a day keeps the doctor away, but some religious zealots may say I held fruit from the tree of knowledge. And, so you know, with my arm holding that apple that you left shattered, know that I have a wisdom you will never understand. Go ahead. Get religious. Because I understood right from wrong long before you unearthed me and left me incomplete. You should realize that exposing me like this is wrong, and you know it. I have a knowledge that you may never comprehend as you look at my broken form and only think that even though I’m incomplete, you can still objectify me. You stripped me of any power to fight back, but I still have a knowledge you will always lack. So try to put the pieces back together again, and you will still never comprehend what you have done, because you will never learn the whole truth.

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