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

Watch the YouTube video of JUST Escaping Every Cage in the “a Very Goth Beach Party” feature 07/03/11 at Chicago’s “Beach Poets”

Watch the YouTube video of JUST Escaping Every Cage from the lip cam in the live feature 07/03/11 at Chicago’s “Beach Poets”

Watch the YouTube video of Escaping Every Cage and Labeled Me Again in the 07/03/11 Beach Poets “a Very Goth Beach Party” feature

Watch the YouTube video of Escaping Every Cage and Labeled Me Again from the lip cam live 07/03/11 at Chicago’s “Beach Poets”

See feature-length YouTube video of many poems read 07/03/11 at Beach Poets from the live feature “a Very Goth Beach Party”

See feature-length YouTube video of the eye-cam of the entire show at Beach Poets 07/03/11 from the “a Very Goth Beach Party” feature

Download the chapbook with this writing in a Very Goth Beach Chapbook

See the YouTube video Live in Chicago at the Café

See feature-length YouTube video 07/05/11 of Janet Kuypers performing her poetry @ Chicago’s the Café

Watch this YouTube video of the intro to the 07/05/11 open mic at the Café in Chicago, with poems and her Close Cover Before Striking poems

Listen to a DMJ Art Connection release of music to this poem, read by Oz Hardwick

See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading her poem Escaping Every Cage 10/6/15 at Quenchers open mic in Chicago (Cfs)

See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading her poem Escaping Every Cage 10/6/15 at Quenchers open mic in Chicago (Cps)

See YouTube video (Cps) of Janet Kuypers reading 5 poems: Once Wanted You as my Friend, Escaping Every Cage, and a Scars medley (based on parts of the prose poem Scars and the poems Scars 1997 and Scars 2000, then Too Far and Children, Churches and Daddies 10/6/15 at Quenchers open mic in Chicago

See YouTube video (Cfs) of Janet Kuypers reading 5 poems: Once Wanted You as my Friend, Escaping Every Cage, and a Scars medley (based on parts of the prose poem Scars and the poems Scars 1997 and Scars 2000, then Too Far and Children, Churches and Daddies 10/6/15 at Quenchers open mic in Chicago

Escaping Every Cage Listen Janet Kuypers 01/14/11 I felt caged in that tiny Windsor hotel room I wanted to get out that’s when he struck I was attacked, knocked over, strangled I managed to break free scraped arms, bruised and bloody knees strangers offered to help me as I made my way through the lobby I had to get so far away, I left the country and never went back ### when I couldn’t take being trapped at work when I was too caged by those office walls I quit my job and drove around the country in my car now, I know a car can be a cage but with this little cage, I felt like I could be free and could go where I wanted and do what I wanted to do I was free for that split second of time until someone tried to kill me in my car and they put me in another cage again ### when I was in the hospital for weeks I would tear the medical bracelet off my wrist daily please don’t track me when I was able to walk, I would try to leave but I didn’t know where to go and they would find me again and bring me back to my cell ### when I was a child, I wanted to get away from my family wanted to get away from my town I wanted something bigger, faster, stronger than anything I ever knew before and so as I grew older I took those childhood memories those childhood toys, those childhood stories and one by one started placing them on an Island surrounded by deep water where no one could touch them and they would always remain just on the horizon ### I have always loved the water swam all my life I swam in pools with friends when I was little I swam along side the tropical fish off the Oahu coast I swam with dozens of White-Tipped Sharks off the Galapagos Islands when I get closer to water I get itchy to just jump in but even when I could let go in the water I’d see that Island in the distance holding all of my childhood traumas and I still never felt entirely free ### one day I decided to face these ancient cages that still hold me down I wanted to face it all battle all of those past demons so I went down to the shoreline arched my hand along my eyebrows looked for that Island of mine the water at the shoreline lapped over my feet pushing the coastline farther inland today I kept searching until I realized my Island fell into the ocean ### everything from my past disappeared except my memories ### that day, I couldn’t go into the water ### we all have our cages sometimes we can’t see them but they’re there, holding us back restraining us holding us down holding us in as I sit in my cage right now I look at these walls hear the cars driving past me and I think of these things that hold us down Copyright © 2011 Janet Kuypers. All rights reserved. No material may be reprinted without express permission.