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

Watch this YouTube video

live at 6/11 in Chicago 06/11/02

Listen

to the CD recording for the 06/11/02 performance art show 6/11

(5:21)
the Burning and Death Takes Many Forms
from the show 6/11 06/11/02

This film is from
the Internet Archive

Listen

to The DMJ Art Connection,
off the CD Manic Depressive or Something

or Listen to & download

this track from the DMJ Art Connection

Listen

to the CD recording of this piece used with the performance art show Death Comes in Threes 03/18/03

Listen

Live at the Cafe,
now available in a 3 CD set

Watch this YouTube video

of this poem read live in Chicago 09/12/03 at the “the Cycle of Life” DvA art gallery show

Or watch the FULL video
from the Internet Archive of the whole live the Cycle of Life DvA art gallery 09/12/03 Chicago show

Listen

to the live track (1:54, 09/12/03) or listen

to the studio track (1:32, 10/25/06) from the DvA Art Gallery Chicago 09/12/03 performance The Cycle of Life.

Listen

to this radio recording
from WZRD Radio (in a 2 CD set)

Watch this YouTube video
(10/03/06, TV show, the Lake County Poets Society, on TV 4 times, 12/06)

Watch this YouTube video
11/17/99, live at the mini feature at, Yammer, hosted by Lisa Hemminger

Watch this video, 4:46, live 11/17/99 at the open mic Yammer

from the Internet Archive

Listen: (5:59)

to this recording from Fusion

(6:46)
the Poems The Burning & Death Takes Many Forms from the 06/11/02 show 6/11
from the Internet Archive

Listen

from Kiki, Jake & Haytstack
off the CD an american portrait

Listen (5:02)

(mixed 04/28/08)
to this poetry, combined with music
from the HA!Man of South Africa
creating “from Chicago the South Africa”

Watch this YouTube video
live 11/05/08, finale feature in Chicago at St. Paul’s, a desanctified church

Watch the complete St. Paul’s 11/05/08 show in Chicago, with 11 poems live, filmed from above in the choir seating of this desanctified church
(23:58, from the Internet Archive)

Watch the complete feature video from the St. Paul’s 11/05/08 show in Chicago

(23:58) from the Internet Archive

You van also watch the above St. Paul’s Chicago 11/05/08 show video at PoetryVidualized

Order this iTunes track:

from the poetry audio CD

etc.
...Or order the entire CD set
from iTunes or Napster
CD:

CD:

Watch this YouTube video
listen:

(5:22) from the 6" x 9" ISBN# book Get Your Buzz On , live 03/01/11 at the Café in Chicago

Watch this YouTube video
of the intro to the 03/01/11 open mic at the Café Chicago, &poems “Eating”, “Weren’t Even Married”, and “Death Takes Many Forms”

Watch this YouTube video
of this poem read over video of her walking through the snowy woods in Gurnee, Illinois 01/03/11

Watch this YouTube video
03/05/11 from the TV camera in Lake Villa at Swing State, live in her show Letting it All Out

Watch this YouTube video
listen:

(4:43, of just the poem) 03/05/11 in Lake Villa at Swing State, live in her “Visual Nonsense” show Letting it All Out

Watch this YouTube video
of Kuypers from the TV monitor in the “Letting it All Out” show, live in Lake Villa 03/05/11 at Swing State

Watch this YouTube video
listen:

(34:48) to the Letting it All Out show, live in Lake Villa’s Swing State 03/05/11 with this piece

Listen live

(4:04)
Or watch the YouTube video
Live at My Soul in the Trunk of my Car at Trunk Fest (part 2), in an outdoor Evanston IL feature 05/28/11

See the YouTube full video of My Soul in the Trunk of my Car (part 2) at Trunk Fest, live 05/28/11, w/ this writing

Download the chapbook with this writing in My Soul in the Trunk of my Car (part 2)

Watch this YouTube video
read 08/02/11, live at the Café in Chicago

Watch this YouTube video

of her reading her death-themed poems 08/02/11 “You’ve Left Me on Siesta Beach” and “Death Takes Many Forms” at the Café in Chicago

Watch this YouTube video

of the intro to the 08/02/11 open mic at the Café in Chicago, and her poems “You’ve Left Me on Siesta Beach” and “Death Takes Many Forms”

Watch this YouTube video
of Kuypers performing this poem with the HA!man of South Africa 10/16/11 live in Chicago

Watch the YouTube video
of Kuypers reading this poem at the open mike 01/18/12 at Gallery Cabaret’s the Café Gallery in Chicago

Watch the YouTube video
of Kuypers reading poetry (including this poem) at the open mike 01/18/12 at Gallery Cabaret’s the Café Gallery in Chicago

Watch the YouTube video

of Kuypers reading this poem at the open mike 4/25/12 at Gallery Cabaret’s the Café Gallery in Chicago (w/ music from Francois Le Roux)

Watch the YouTube video
of Kuypers’ open mike 4/25/12 at Gallery Cabaret’s the Café Gallery in Chicago, plus her poetry (w/ music from the HA!man of South Africa, and live piano from Gary)

Watch this YouTube video
of this poem performed live at the “Ruffled Feathers” open mike at Rewster’s Café in Chicago 5/14/12

Watch this YouTube video
of all of Kuypers’ performances (which includes this poem) at Chicago’s Ruffled Feathers open mike 5/14/12

Watch this YouTube video
of this poem performed live at the “Green Mill” (home of the Chicago Uptown Poetry Slam) 5/20/12

Watch the YouTube video
of this Kuypers reading the poem (from memory) live 1/26/13 on Chicago’s WZRD 88.3 FM radio (Canon)

Watch this YouTube video
of Janet Kuypers reading her poem Death Takes Many forms. live in Chicago 8/28/13 (C) at her interview & reading

See YouTube video
of Janet Kuypers reading her poem Death Takes Many Forms from memory live in Chicago 10/31/13 at Poe-Pourri in Chicago

See YouTube video
of Janet Kuypers reading her poem Death Takes Many Forms from memory live in Chicago 10/31/13 at Poe-Pourri in Chicago (with a watercolor filter)

See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading her poem Death Takes Many Forms in Vicci’s Chicago studio 7/20/14, with video behind her of her drawing this poem (C, take 1)

See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading her poem Death Takes Many Forms in Vicci’s Chicago studio 7/20/14, with video behind her of her drawing this poem (C, take 2)

See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading her poem Death Takes Many Forms in Vicci’s Chicago studio 7/20/14, with video behind her of her drawing this poem (S, take 1)

See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading her poem Death Takes Many Forms in Vicci’s Chicago studio 7/20/14, with video behind her of her drawing this poem (S, take 2)

See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading 4 poems 8/31/15 at the Chicago open mic Weeds (Canon fs200), with an edited version of her poem Communication, plus her poems Death Takes Many Forms, True Happiness in the New Millennium, and Other Souls.

See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading 4 poems 8/31/15 at the Chicago open mic Weeds (Canon Power Shot), with an edited version of her poem Communication, plus her poems Death Takes Many Forms, True Happiness in the New Millennium, and Other Souls.

See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers in her 9/2/15 show “Like a Lamb to the Slaughter” in her feature at Poetry At The Gallery Cabaret in Chicago (Canon fs200), with her poems Entering the Lake of Fire, unless it happens to you, Open Book, electromagnetism, an edited version of the poem Everything was Alive and Dying, Death Takes Many Forms, and Under the Sea.

See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers in her 9/2/15 show “Like a Lamb to the Slaughter” in her feature at Poetry At The Gallery Cabaret in Chicago (Canon Power Shot), with her poems Entering the Lake of Fire, unless it happens to you, Open Book, electromagnetism, an edited version of her poem Everything was Alive and Dying, Death Takes Many Forms, and Under the Sea.

Download poems in the free chapbook
Like a Lamb to the Slaughter

of the NEW poems read 9/2/15 at the Café Gallery show in Chicago

See YouTube video (Nikon SuperPix S7000) of Janet Kuypers reading her poem Death Takes Many Forms 12/20/15 at the Austin open mic Kick Butt Poetry

See YouTube video 12/20/15 of Janet Kuypers reading her poem Death Takes Many Forms and singing the Stevie Ray Vaughan song Life by the Drop (with John on guitar) at the Austin open mic Kick Butt Poetry (Nikon SuperPix S7000).

See YouTube video 7/10/16 of Janet Kuypers reading her 2 poems Climbing Trees and Death Takes Many Forms at the Austin open mic Kick Butt Poetry (from a Sony camera).

See YouTube video 7/10/16 of Janet Kuypers reading her 2 poems Climbing Trees and Death Takes Many Forms at the Austin open mic Kick Butt Poetry (tCanon Power Shot camera).

Death takes many forms.

Janet Kuypers
03/04 - 03/11 1998

It is winter now.
The trees have lost their leaves;
the city is covered in a thin layer of soot and snow.
The grass is dead.
In the sunless sky black birds circle overhead
searching for prey.
An eerie cold settles over everything.
Nothing is growing anymore.

Death takes many forms.
For you, death first came when you were five years old
and your mother had to give you three shots of insulin a day
until you could take a needle to yourself.
Did it hurt to push that needle into your arm, the first time?
Or did it hurt you more to know you had no choice?

Death takes many forms.
Death can be someone telling you without trying
that they are losing their sight.
Behind coke-bottle glasses you would see me and say,
“That’s a nice black suit you’re wearing.”
And I would tell you, “It’s green.”
And you wouldn’t believe me.
You wouldn’t hear the howling wind of the changing seasons.

Death takes many forms.
I know what follows the autumn wind.
It is winter now.
Do you remember when it happened?
The changes are subtle, the temperature drops,
first only slightly. It’s almost imperceptible.
Only when the first snow falls do you realize
where the seasons have gone.

Death takes many forms.
Death can be a sweat-soaked shirt, the shakes, dizziness
when you needed food.
You would look as pale as a ghost
as I would hold your cold wet arm and steady you.
Quick, some sugar will make everything better.
Isn’t everything better yet?

Death takes many forms.
The signs of death can come
when you lose your circulation.
“My feet are numb, Janet,” you’d say.
“I can’t feel my feet anymore.”
And I would rub your feet for you,
and you would say it makes a difference,
you feel better.

If only I could do this forever.

Death takes many forms.
I said good bye to you to travel my own road
but I didn’t think it was the last good bye.
How was I to know?

When I left, I knew you didn’t want me to go.
And now it’s my turn.

Why are we always saying good bye to each other?

Are you trying to teach me a lesson?
Because if you are, well,
I’ve learned it. Trust me, I have.
You can come back now.

Death takes many forms.
And now, now it seems
you’ve taken me down with you
you’ve taken me into that casket with you
and I’m running my hand along your jacket lapel
and I can feel the coldness of winter all around me
and I can hear them shoveling the dirt over my head
and I want to get out
and I want to take you with me.

Death takes many forms.
Death can be that hole you left,
you know, right over here, just a little to the left.
I keep wondering when the pain will go away.
When will everything be better.

You once showed me that winter could be beautiful.
Instead of the dark and dirty snow lacing the city streets
you showed me a quieting snowfall,
over a lake at your parent’s back yard
glistening in an untouched whiteness.
I told you I hated winters
and you told me, “This you don’t hate.”

Well, I’m still learning.

It is winter now.
And death takes many forms.
The seasons change for you and I.
It is snowing. And something is ending.
It is snowing. Somewhere
it is snowing.