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

Watch this YouTube video read live on her wedding day (May 7, 2000)

Order this iTunes track from the poetry audio CD “Oh.” audio CD ...Or order the entire CD set from iTunes:

Order this iTunes track: from the poetry audio CDetc. ...Or order the entire CD set from iTunes or Napster CD: CD:

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

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

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

Watch this YouTube video 6:11 at the live Jesse Oaks live “UNcorrect” feature 06/21/07

Listen: (4:54) to this recording from Fusion

Watch this 3:34 video from the show 6/11 06/11/02 from the Internet Archive

Watch this YouTube video live at 6/11 in Chicago 06/11/02

Watch this YouTube video of the Cutting Room Floor at the Palos Park Public Library 10/07/09

or see the full 10/07/09 Video at the Palos Park Public Library of the Cutting Room Floor via the Internet Archive

See the YouTube ½ Show of the 1st 10 minutes of the show the Cutting Room Floor, at the Palos Park Public Library 10/07/09

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

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

See Complete feature video of the HA!man of South Africa 10/16/11 evening music show with this poem at Chapel at the Chapel of the Chicago Theological Seminary (from Canon)

See Complete feature video of the HA!man of South Africa 10/16/11 evening music show with this poem at Chapel at the Chapel of the Chicago Theological Seminary (from Sony)

Watch the YouTube video of Kuypers reading this poem 10/16/11 on WZRD radio (filmed from the Canon camera)

See the full YouTube video 10/16/11 of the Janet Kuypers appearance on WZRD radio, with her talking about and reading poetry, which includes this poem performed live (filmed from the Canon camera)

See YouTube video 9/11/15 of Janet Kuypers at the Chicago’s Roots Room reading her poems operation diligence and Looking fora Worthy Adversary, then singing her original song What we Need in Life, then reading her poem I dreamt about you last night, then covering the 1925 song (a capella) Brother, Can you Spare a Dime, & finishing with her poem Under the Sea (Canon fs200, cropped/saturated w/ sci-fi filter).

See YouTube video 9/11/15 of Janet Kuypers at the Chicago’s Roots Room reading her poems operation diligence and Looking fora Worthy Adversary, then singing her original song What we Need in Life, then reading her poem I dreamt about you last night, then covering the 1925 song (a cappella) Brother, Can you Spare a Dime, & finishing with her poem Under the Sea (Canon fs200, cropped & saturated).

See YouTube video (Nikon CoolPix S7000) of Janet Kuypers reading her poem Looking For A Worthy Adversary 12/20/15 at the Austin open mic Kick Butt Poetry

See YouTube video 12/20/15 of Janet Kuypers reading her poems Being God, Looking For A Worthy Adversary, and True Happiness in the New Millennium at the Austin open mic Kick Butt Poetry (Nikon CoolPix S7000).

looking for a worthy adversary I’ve been looking for a worthy adversary someone I can lock horns with because although my life makes more sense when I’m alone it’s not nearly as interesting I’ve been looking for a worthy adversary someone I can battle to the death with because it can’t be about love, you see love can’t exist on the terms I demand it’s never that pure I’ve been looking for a worthy adversary and so I slither up to you like a snake as you sit there at the corner of the bar drinking your gin and tonics and I tempt you with a golden apple but all I was offering you was fruit from the tree of knowledge I didn’t know how willing you were to take from that tree I’m not used to that, you know Did you know you’d need to come back for more? Did you know what you were getting into? well, I didn’t know you’d have a thing or two to each me too and did I know I’d need to come back for more? Did I know what I was getting into? because as I’ve been looking for a worthy adversary all this time I’ve been playing a part an actress on a stage, spouting the lines on cue and that role was getting tiresome but those stage lights still came on night after night and I still had to play my part until on my night off I saw your performance at the theatre down the street and you know, your protagonist was doing what I was doing right down to faking it with people who don’t matter right down to going home and still feeling empty and you know, I liked to see that boiling emotion underneath that no one else could see because only I had the knowledge to know what that emotion really means and you know, I’m beginning to wonder if we can get together and write our own play it would be a masterful performance, you know and as that curtain would close we’d hold each other’s hands and walk off the stage and the audience would know that there is a happy ending and now when I walk out on to the set and there you stand, in front, stage left I wait for my cue to make my move none of the rest of the scene matters to me, you know maybe they’d like our little play, maybe they wouldn’t who really cares because even though I came to you and tempted you you now tempt me and tease me and torment me and tell me everything I was too afraid to believe and show me the knowledge that always escaped me and when you talk you reach your hand into my brain and pull out my thoughts and shove them into your mouth and spit them back at me and instead of filling me with terror it fills me with joy I’ve been looking for a worthy adversary and maybe you are much more than that I’ve heard the words you say to me before I’ve said them to myself many times but why do they sound so much better coming from you? I had been looking for a worth adversary someone I could lock horns with but now I’m no longer locking horns now it seems I don’t have to fight the battle alone now it seems that there’s no battle to fight we know what all the lines from our play really mean and now we’re performing for no one now we’re just ourselves and now there’s just understanding I don’t even have to speak and now every day is Valentine’s Day and now it’s like candy and flowers and springtime and hearts and cupids and sunshine and you know it’s scary these cliches are actually beginning to make sense I guess that’s what the tree of knowledge does to you so this is what has been going on in my mind and now I’ve just spilled my guts and now I’m just a puddle on the floor but now my performance of a lifetime is made I stand here like a statue and wait for my applause and as I wait for the reviews on the performance I was made for I know what they’re all going to say and none of that matters anymore because I know what you are going to say because it’s everything that I want to say because now it’s time for you to take my thoughts again and shove them into your mouth again and spit them back at me again and now I wait for you to come on stage again for our next wonderful performance where we have our happy ending where you tell me what I already know Copyright Janet Kuypers. All rights reserved. No material may be reprinted without express permission.

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