poem “Over the Cracks (I Don’t Need You)”, a poem based on the 1998 recovery poem “no there isn’t” that talks about how bag things in life can happen, and you just have to brace yourself and get used to the idea that terrible things can happen to you so you don’t need to depend on anyone else, By Chicago Poet Janet Kuypers

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

See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading her poem Over the Cracks (I Don’t Need You) in the second round at the final Austin installment (at her house) of the Poetry Plus open mic 7/22/16 (Canon Power Shot camera).

See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading her poem Over the Cracks (I Don’t Need You) in the second round at the final Austin installment (at her house) of the Poetry Plus open mic 7/22/16 (filmed w/ a Sony camera).

See YouTube video from 12/14/17 of Janet Kuypers reading her poems “X-rays and broken hearts”, “Over the Cracks (I Don’t Need You)”, and “Your Imaginary Soul Weighs 21 Grams” from her book “(pheromemes) 2015-2017 poems” @ “the Hole in the Wall” in Austin for AIPF’s pre-party reading (this video was filmed from a Panasonic Lumix 2500 camera; posted on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, Instagram, and Tumblr).

See YouTube video from 12/14/17 of Janet Kuypers reading her poems “X-rays and broken hearts”, “Over the Cracks (I Don’t Need You)”, and “Your Imaginary Soul Weighs 21 Grams” from her book “(pheromemes) 2015-2017 poems” @ “the Hole in the Wall” in Austin for AIPF’s pre-party reading (this video was filmed from a Panasonic Lumix T56 camera; posted on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, Instagram, and Tumblr).

Over the Cracks
(I Don’t Need You)
Janet Kuypers
7/22/16 (based on the poem
“no there isn’t”, written 10/11/98)
I can stand alone
I don’t need you
and you think there’s
more to it than that,
but no, there isn’t

well, sometimes you’ve
got to do what you’ve
got to do, and you just
get it done. when it’s got
to get done, you have to
remember that people,
when actors and actresses,
who do it on television,
well, they and the
directors have no
idea how to get it done.

Well, sometimes the
world and everything kind of
shows what it’s made of
and sometimes you have
to survive all the crap that’s
thrown in your direction.
So sometimes it’s important
to understand that I don’t
need all the crutches that
people usually give
themselves, but it’s true, I
don’t need you, and I can
get along fine without you.
Sometimes you can avoid the cracks,
but sometimes the cracks
open up to a gorge
and sucks you down
and swallows you whole.
Learn to avoid the cracks,
or learn to crawl your way
out of the chasm...
And shake off the demons
from the abyss
after you managed to break free.
After I live through something like that,
do I feel any different?
Should the world be now revolving
at a different pace?
Or was everyone just used to the
change of the earth’s speed
when it changed, is it
something whey just never
chose to think about?
Was everyone just used to
the world when it
started to feel this way?
So many people go through
life with a lack of emotion,
or a lack of feeling, or a
lack of thought. And I’ve never
been asked to find out information
like that, I’ve never been asked
to function that way. I’ve
never been able to just let life
go by.
Maybe life stepped on me a few times.
Maybe life opened up it’s cracks
and it made me battle against humanity.
Maybe those cracks opened up
so I’d lose the ground underneath my feet.
Gravity, like death,
pulled me into the abyss,
and I had to claw my way
until my fingers
were bloody from scraping,
and I bled rivers,
the oceans filled with my sweat
until I was able to break free
from earth’s gravitational well.
Well, you know what I’m
getting at with these metaphors...
Maybe if life is just cruel that
way, maybe life is storming
away and if you happen to be
in the way, well maybe life will
just accidentally step on you,
or leave cracks in your world
so that you will slip and fail.
Well, at times
like that you just have to be
ready for a battle, maybe it’s
a battle you weren’t expecting to
run into in the first place, but
sometimes you just have to be ready
for a conflict like that.
Even if it never comes to get you,
you have to be ready for that
potential problem, just in case.
Just in case it happens.
And I tell you,
I’ve made myself ready.
I’ve had to.
And this is why
I want you to understand.
You think there’s more to it,
but I just don’t need to anymore.

my hand to an anim of jkchair