poem “Tag Team Poets”, poem written after the death of C Ra McGuirt that talks about going through loss and the stages of grief from losing a loved one, and wondering if poets always need to feel anger, as a reminder that they are alive and fighting, By Chicago Poet Janet Kuypers

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

Enjoy this YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading her poetry, with with her poem “Tag Team Poets” flowing into the end of her poem “Our Ships Would No Longer Cross”, then, after being asked to continue to read, read her full poem “Our Ships Would No Longer Cross” as the first poet performing for C Ra McGuirt on his birthday 8/13/22 at a memorial in Nashville, TN after his passing away (from a Samsung S9 camera; posted on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, Instagram, and Tumblr). #janetkuypers #janetkuyperspoetry

Enjoy this YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading her poetry, with with her poem “Tag Team Poets” flowing into the end of her poem “Our Ships Would No Longer Cross”, then, after being asked to continue to read, read her full poem “Our Ships Would No Longer Cross” as the first poet performing for C Ra McGuirt on his birthday 8/13/22 at a memorial in Nashville, TN after his passing away (this video was filmed from a Samsung S9 camera with a Hue Cycling filter; posted on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, Instagram, and Tumblr). #janetkuypers #janetkuyperspoetry

Enjoy this YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading her poetry performance, starting with the beginning of her poem “Those Were the Days of Our Lives (dreams 8/12/22)” flowing into her poem “Tag Team Poets” flowing into the end of her poem “Our Ships Would No Longer Cross”, then, after being asked to continue to read, read her full poem “Our Ships Would No Longer Cross” as the first poet performing for C Ra McGuirt on his birthday 8/13/22 at a memorial in Nashville, TN after his passing away (this video was filmed from an iPhone 10 camera; posted on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, Instagram, and Tumblr). #janetkuypers #janetkuyperspoetry

Enjoy this full YouTube video of the C Ra McGuirt wake/celebration of his life on his birthday 8/13/22 at Cafe Coco Cafe & Bistro in Nashville, TN, with (in order): Allen Welty-Green, Janet Kuypers, Brian Daly, Phillip Hart, Stuart Arkovitz, Klyd Watkins, Pat Crossett, Ross Massey, Steve Gans, Larry Simons, and Maxine Herbert.

Enjoy this YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading her poems “Tag Team Poets”, “Expression for Loss”, and “Only Souls who have Tried” from the v203 1/23 Down in the Dirt issue/book “The Gravity of Imagination” (that are all also slated to appear in section 2 of the CyberWit.net 2023 Janet Kuypers poetry book “Testament”) during her “Poetic License 1/1/23 global open mic” she hosted through a Zoom meeting and a Facebook event page (filmed from a Panasonic Lumix 2500 camera; on Facebook, Twitter, Linked in, Pinterest, Instagram, and Tumblr). #janetkuypers #janetkuypersbookreading #janetkuyperspoetry #janetkuyperspoeticlicense

Enjoy this Facebook live video stream of Janet Kuypers reading her poems “Tag Team Poets”, “Expression for Loss”, and “Only Souls who have Tried” from the v203 1/23 Down in the Dirt issue/book “The Gravity of Imagination” (that are all also slated to appear in section 2 of the CyberWit.net 2023 Janet Kuypers poetry book “Testament”) during her “Poetic License 1/1/23 global open mic” she hosted through a Zoom meeting and a Facebook event page (this video was filmed and streamed from a Samsung S9 camera; posted on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Instagram, and Tumblr). #janetkuypers #janetkuyperspoetry #janetkuypersbookreading #janetkuyperspoeticlicense

Enjoy this YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading her Down in the Dirt 1-4/23 “Forbidden Library” book poems “Okay, it’s all about the Oxygen” + showing its image (which is also in her book “Periodic Ta ble Poetry”), plus “Expression for Loss”, “Only Souls who have Tried”, “Those Were the Days of Our Lives (dreams 8/12/22)”, and “Tag Team Poets” (which are also in the CyberWit 2023 book “Testa ment”) for the 5/3/23 ‘Community Poetry’ honorary book reading (this video was filmed from a Panasonic Lumix 2500 camera; posted on Facebook, Twitter, Linked in, Pinterest, Instagram, and Tumblr).
Enjoy this as a Facebook live video stream filmed and streamed from a Samsung S9 camera; posted on Facebook, Twitter, Linked in, Instagram, and Tumblr. #janetkuypers #janetkuyperspoetry #janetkuypersbookreading #janetkuypersperiodictablepoem

Tag Team Poets
Janet Kuypers
8/4/22
They say a person goes through
Five stages of grief after the loss
                                              of a
Loved one.
                    But
Losing a god is not the same thing,
So I’m not sure how much longer
I’ll be stuck in this anger stage.
#
I’ve fought through my entire life.
You think I’m kidding, but I’ve
Fought sexism and rape
From first-hand experience —
Because I’ve wrestled through
Evil in this world, I feel that I can
Handle just about anything.
It may tear me apart,
But that’s what we fighters do.
We fight. We win.
So after meeting my sun god
Up close and in person,
And then after nearly losing my life
                                            Literally
That’s when this sun god
The one who’s supposed to give us light
Well,
I think he gave up
On telling me his struggles
And instead
                    Knew what I wrestled through
And offered me a matching wrestling belt
I doubt it matched
Was Luscious Leslie Love
Wore in his wrestling days,
But —
    You don’t question these things
    When a god hands you a wrestling belt
    To say he knows your pain
But back in the day,
Before I discovered that He was a god,
He came to me as a poet —
And that’s the important part —
Because when this wrestler
               when this sun god
Gave me this wrestling belt
He said,
He very specifically said
                           That we
                           Are now
Tag team poets
Like we were poets,
Taking turns,
Sharing our pain,
                              then
Letting the other come in
To carry the load
So we don’t feel
Like we have to battle the world
Alone
Because,
               You know,
I never wore that belt before
  That would be sacrilegious
But now,
Now I think I have to leave this belt,
Maybe,
Keep it behind my desk
Where I’m always working,
Looking for inspiration.
#
I’m not a religious person.
I’ve always relied
         On my mind
Because we poets don’t have much else
But what I can tell you
Is that we can all be tired
Of our heart breaking
With pain and anger after loss
    And as I said,
    I still don’t know
    How long I’ll be stuck
    In this anger phase
But anger is one of those things
That’s supposed to make
Us write, to make us
Poets thrive, that help us
Make sense of the world
            to the world
But the survival instinct
In each and every one of us
                      Even us poets
And even, I thought, for the gods
Is supposed to make you
Fight against the odds
         Against all odds
So, I have to wonder
Not knowing what a god goes through
What kind of pain
A sun god must suffer though
To decide when
Enough is enough
So maybe this is me
Bargaining, the
Stage after anger,
To try, like Bill Clinton,
To feel his pain,
To be too depressed
To make a difference
Before I accept my loss
Of my sun god.
I suppose I can
Rationalize this all away,
At least superficially,
But as I said,
Us poets seem to
Thrive on that anger,
So... maybe, as cruel
As this sounds,
Maybe we have to
Always remain
Just a little angry,
Because life is always
Just a little unfair,
But oddly enough,
It’s just one
Painful way
To remind us
That we’re still alive.

Copyright © Janet Kuypers.

my hand to an anim of jkchair