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


video See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers, while hosting the Poetry Aloud open mic 4/27/19 in Georgetown TX, reads her poems “Xanthoxenite in St. Mary Lake” (originally written about the Notre Dame) and “Victims of Violence for Lending a Hand” (written on and for Victims of Violence Wholly Day), then her poem “Before Taking Over the Controls (2015 edit)”, 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).
video See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers, while hosting the Poetry Aloud open mic 4/27/19 in Georgetown TX, reads her poems “Xanthoxenite in St. Mary Lake” (originally written about the Notre Dame) and “Victims of Violence for Lending a Hand” (written on and for Victims of Violence Wholly Day), then her poem “Before Taking Over the Controls (2015 edit)”, 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, and was given a Sepia Tone filter).
video See YouTube video 8/24/19 of Janet Kuypers reading her poem “Xanthoxenite in St. Mary’s Lake”, “Learning how Love Lasts”, and “Check Your Clock” from her 2019 book “(pheromones) haiku, Instagram, Twitter, and poetry” at Georgetown’s “Poetry Aloud” open mic (video from a Panasonic Lumix T56 camera).
video See YouTube video 8/24/19 of Janet Kuypers reading her poem “Xanthoxenite in St. Mary’s Lake”, “Learning how Love Lasts”, and “Check Your Clock” from her 2019 book “(pheromones) haiku, Instagram, Twitter, and poetry” at Georgetown’s “Poetry Aloud” open mic (video from a Panasonic Lumix 2500 camera).
video See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading her poems “Xanthoxenite in St. Mary Lake” and “Xyresic Flames” from the April 2021 v182 issue of Down in the Dirt’s paperback book “i am not alone”, plus her new poem “your body from the tub (dreams 3/30/21)”, at the beginning of 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
video See a Facebook live video stream of Janet Kuypers reading her poems “Xanthoxenite in St. Mary Lake” and “Xyresic Flames” from the April 2021 v182 issue of Down in the Dirt’s paperback book
i am not alone”, plus her new poem “your body from the tub (dreams 3/30/21)”, at the beginning of the “Poetic License virtual open mic 4/4/21” she hosted through a Zoom meeting and a Facebook event page
(filmed & streamed from a Samsung S9 camera). #janetkuypers #janetkuyperspoetry #janetkuyperspoeticlicense
video See this YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading her poems “Xystus to Foundation”, “Xanthoxenite in St. Mary Lake”, and “Xyresic Flames” from the Scars Publications 1-4 2021 Down in the Dirt issue collection book “Excerpts from the Plague Years” 7/21/21 for “The Café Gallery 7/21/21 Book Reading” in The Café Gallery Book Reading series 2020+ (this video was filmed from a Panasonic Lumix 2500 camera; posted on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, Instagram, and Tumblr). #janetkuypers #janetkuyperspoetry #janetkuypersbookreading #janetkuypersthecafegallery
video See this Facebook live video stream of Janet Kuypers reading her poems “Xystus to Foundation”, “Xanthoxenite in St. Mary Lake”, and “Xyresic Flames” from the Scars Publications 1-4 2021 Down in the Dirt issue collection book “Excerpts from the Plague Years” 7/21/21 for “The Café Gallery 7/21/21 Book Reading” in The Café Gallery Book Reading series 2020+ (this video was filmed and streamed from a Samsung S9 camera). #janetkuypers #janetkuyperspoetry #janetkuypersbookreading #janetkuypersthecafegallery

Xanthoxenite
in St. Mary Lake

Janet Kuypers
4/25/19 (written after the Notre Dame fire)

I ran my hand
along your metal —
the straight bars
somehow flowed
into concentric circles
and petals of a flower,
to not only protect
but also accentuate
your stained-glass windows —
because
even your barricades
were beautiful.

We look for beauty,
we take photographs,
and we forget
the sense of touch,
so I glide my hand
along your metal,
feel the roughness,
feel the smoothness,
soak it in
with every sense
I can.

I could touch
that metal, that glass,
run my hand
along your
Notre Dame Brick,
literally made from
the clay from the base
of St. Mary Lake —
laced with xanthoxenite,
rich in calcium carbonate,
because that was
the one place
that created the
most perfect color brick
for this most perfect place.

These visual things
concerned them,
because if a fire
destroyed one building,
they would work to
preserve those bricks,
because even
these visual things
meant the world
to us for
some
reason.

And when fire
one afternoon
consumed you
entirely, everyone
worried about
what physical
objects could
be preserved...

Your ancient beauty
cannot be replicated,
yet billionaires are
offering millions
to re-create you again.
And I just want
to tell them,
replicating something
once it’s destroyed
misses the point,
because this
sacred place
is just that — sacred —
and it is so much more
than recreating
something
on sight
and hoping
that’s enough.


Copyright © Janet Kuypers.

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



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

Add to Twitter    Add to Facebook    Add to digg    Add to Del.icio.us    Add to Google Bookmarks    Add to Mister Wong    Add to reddit    Add to Stumble Upon    Add to Technorati






my hand to an anim of jkchair



Kuypers at Artvilla


scars publications


Kuypers writing