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

Order this iTunes track from the poetry audio CD Hope Chest In The Attic 13 Years of Poetry & Prose ...Or order the entire CD set from iTunes:

Listen to studio or live tracks from the CD & performance art show How Do I Get There?

Watch this YouTube video live at the show How Do I Get There 02/15/05, Chicago

see the entire performance of How Do I Get There? 02/15/05 in Chicago live, via the Internet Archive

Listen to this w/ the DMJ Art Connection off the CD Chaos In Motion

Listen to this collaboration of Peter Bartels & Janet Kuypers: pb&j

Watch this YouTube video 12/04/10 from the TV camera in Lake Villa at Swing State, live in her show the Stories of Women

Watch this YouTube video 12/04/10 in Lake Villa at Swing State, live in her “Visual Nonsense” show the Stories of Women

See Kuypers’ full show video with this & more from the TV monitor in the the Stories of Women show, in Visual Nonsense, live in Lake Villa 12/04/10 at Swing State

See the full show video of Kuypers reading this & more in the the Stories of Women show in in Visual Nonsense, live in Lake Villa 12/04/10 with this writing at Swing State (last line of last story cut off)

Watch the YouTube video of Kuypers reading this poem at the open mike 2/15/12 at Gallery Cabaret’s the Café Gallery in Chicago, from the Samsung

Watch the YouTube video of Kuypers’ intro to the open mike 2/15/12 at Gallery Cabaret’s the Café Gallery in Chicago, plus other open mike poets, and her poetry (from the Kodak)

See YouTube video 2/12/16 of Janet Kuypers reading her poem The Fourteenth at the Poetry Plus open mic at Cianfrani’s on the Square in Georgetown TX (video filmed from a Canon Power Shot camera).

See YouTube video 2/12/16 of Janet Kuypers reading her 2 poems The Fourteenth & Looking for a Worthy Adversary (an extreme sestina variation), and then her 2 poems There I Sit & Writing Your Name as one, at the Poetry Plus open mic at Cianfrani’s on the Square in Georgetown TX (Cps).

the Fourteenth grade school, lace and construction paper cut outs - mimicking our hearts with school glue, a sixty-four pack of crayons, a doily, perhaps, and a child’s scribblings, “Be My Valentine.” The beginning of every cold February the classes of children are taught to make enough little hearts for everyone, so that no one may be disappointed, so that everyone can be your Valentine. Nonetheless, one little child’s construction paper mailbox come February fourteenth always had less than everyone else’s. And then it gets easier as the years go on mommies buy little packs of Valentine cards for their children to sign and give away to all the little children at school. Saves them from having to make all those cards, the glue and the glitter and the cut-outs are messy. Every fourteenth, second month when I was little I remember daddy bringing heart-shaped boxes home for all the girls - myself, my sister, my mother. I can remember mother now, her candy box on her ironing board, thanking him once again for the lovely gift. And so it goes. And the card shops get fuller this time every year husbands saying “my wife will kill me if I don’t get her a card” or young women complaining “my boss told me to get a card for his wife” And the flowers seem the same, don’t they? Carnations arranged in a big ball atop a little basket. Red, yellow, pink, white. Lovely. All the adornments of the holiday. Don’t stop short of the best. A girlfriend said to me once she’s sure boyfriends break up with you by the beginning of February so they don’t have to buy you anything. So they don’t have to say they love you. Last year I spent Valentine’s Day taking those chalky hearts with messages on them and scribbling my own on the back. “Screw You”, “Go Away”, “Leave Me Alone.” I never liked the taste of those candies. And the Valentine’s Day party, where all the single people were thinking, “Please give me someone to go home with. Don’t let me be alone tonight.” And the women getting lonely and the married couples arguing and the suicide rate going up And the woman looking at the carnations on her dining room table holding the card in her hand that says “love, Jake” wondering why it doesn’t feel good yet Copyright Janet Kuypers. All rights reserved. No material may be reprinted without express permission.