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

See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading her poem “Gouge Out Their Eyes” within her “This is a Poem About” chapbook and read from the v5 cc&d boss lady poetry collection book “On the Edge”, then her 2019 poems “Eliminating the Endangered Species List” (written on National Panda Day) and “Kind of Like a City” at “Recycled Reads” in Austin 4/20/19 (this video was filmed from a Panasonic Lumix T56 camera).

See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading her poem “Gouge Out Their Eyes” within her “This is a Poem About” chapbook and read from the v5 cc&d boss lady poetry collection book “On the Edge”, then her 2019 poems “Eliminating the Endangered Species List” (written on National Panda Day) and “Kind of Like a City” at “Recycled Reads” in Austin 4/20/19 (this video was filmed from a Panasonic Lumix 2500 camera).

See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading her poems “Value of π” (written on 3/14, on & for π day) and “Eliminating the Endangered Species List” (written on 3/16, on & for National Panda Day), both read from her poetry book “Every Event of the Year (Volume one: January-June)”, then her prose poem “Exactly Where She Belonged (dreams 2/29/20)”, during the “Poetic License open mic 3/1/20”, while hosting “Poetic License” monthly at Austin’s “Recycled Reads” (video from a Panasonic Lumix 2500 camera; also posted on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and Tumblr.

See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading her poems “Value of π” (written on 3/14, on & for π day) and “Eliminating the Endangered Species List” (written on 3/16, on & for National Panda Day), both read from her poetry book “Every Event of the Year (Volume one: January-June)”, then her prose poem “Exactly Where She Belonged (dreams 2/29/20)”, during the “Poetic License open mic 3/1/20”, while hosting “Poetic License” monthly at Austin’s “Recycled Reads” (video from a Panasonic Lumix T56 camera; also posted on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and Tumblr.

See a YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading her poems “Join Me”, “Easier and Easier”, “Eliminating the Endangered Species List”, “Etching, Scribbling, Drawing”, and “Didn’t Think Anything of It” from the cc&d 3/21 v307 book “Too Many Humans & Not Enuf Souls...” 3/3/21, during the usual time for Austin’s “Community Poetry” open mic (this video was filmed from a Panasonic Lumix 2500 camera; posted on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, Instagram, and Tumblr).  #janetkuypers #janetkuyperspoetry #janetkuypersbookreading

See a Facebook live video stream of Janet Kuypers reading her poems “Join Me”, “Easier and Easier”, “Eliminating the Endangered Species List”, “Etching, Scribbling, Drawing”, and “Didn’t Think Anything of It” from the cc&d 3/21 v307 book “Too Many Humans & Not Enuf Souls...” 3/3/21, during the usual time (1:00-3:00 PM CST) for Austin’s “Community Poetry” open mic (this video was filmed and streamed from a Samsung S9 camera).   #janetkuypers   #janetkuyperspoetry   #janetkuypersbookreading

See this YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading her poem “Eliminating the Endangered Species List” from the “Too Many Humans & Not Enuf Souls...” section of the Scars Publications 1-4 2021 cc&d issue collection book “What Lies on the Other Side” 5/27/21 at Austin Poetry Society’s “New World Poetry” open mic (video from a Panasonic Lumix 2500 camera; posted on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Instagram, and Tumblr).  #janetkuypers #janetkuyperspoetry #janetkuypersbookreading

See this Facebook live video stream of Janet Kuypers reading her poem “Eliminating the Endangered Species List” from the “Too Many Humans & Not Enuf Souls...” section of the Scars Publications 1-4 2021 cc&d issue collection book “What Lies on the Other Side” 5/27/21 at Austin Poetry Society’s “New World Poetry” open mic; (this video was filmed and streamed from a Samsung S9 camera). #janetkuypers #janetkuyperspoetry #janetkuypersbookreading

Eliminating the Endangered Species List

Janet Kuypers 3/16/19 (written on National Panda Day) It’s strange to think that some of the animals Americans enjoy eating today verged in America on being endangered species. But this makes sense — when Americans first came to these pristine lands, it was their first inclination to go slaughter with impunity. I’ve seen it in history, when British Frigate ships first discovered the Galapagos Islands, they thought that those giant tortoises were the perfect food- source, so they would flip these giant animals onto their backs and have so much food to get home. And in the U.S., bison and buffalo were on the endangered species list because of my husband’s great-great uncle, and Buffalo Bill, and others in the “great frontier”, with their great mass- shooting ability. And on the east coast, labor workers at the docks would eat the lobsters that seemed so common on the shores, that they were almost considered garbage no one else would bother to consume. But now that we’ve stripped the land and the seas dry of what we now call precious animals, we revere them for food, and mass market them so humans can be always enjoying these once common and now rare animals on the planet for mass consumption once again. Over history, we humans have learned how to exploit markets, I mean, utilize markets, so they work to our advantage, so that everyone gets what they “want”. Which is why I wonder now, on National Panda Day, when the endangered animal now on the Red List of threatened species, why people haven’t taken my best friend’s idea seriously, in making animals on the endangered species list a delicacy. Because if we do that, then all these gluttonous Americans will want to make sure that these pandas are available on the market for their consumption, at their leisure — because when it comes to supply and demand, that truly is the American way. Now, I’m a vegetarian, and although I can say I’m all for saving a species, I wonder if us people with out big brains and our opposable thumbs at the top of the intellectual food chain, I wonder if slaughtering some animals for later consumption can actually save a species from extinction. If a vegetarian can consider the choice, and wonder why, if a burger joint sells burgers, why Panda Express can’t sell Panda meat, then maybe we have to re-evaluate how to save every species on the planet after all. Which lives are worth saving, one can wonder, when trying to save a species.

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