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

See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading her 2019 poems “Sledgehammers and Cheers” (written on the anniversary of the date President Reagan tells Gorbachev to “tear down this wall”), and “Quesadich in our Underworld”, then her 2019 Instagram poem “Quickly Life can Turn” (w/ her Instagram poem image), 6/15/19 at “Recycled Reads” (Panasonic Lumix T56 camera).

See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading her 2019 poems “Sledgehammers and Cheers” (written on the anniversary of the date President Reagan tells Gorbachev to “tear down this wall”), and “Quesadich in our Underworld”, then her 2019 Instagram poem “Quickly Life can Turn” (w/ her Instagram poem image), 6/15/19 at “Recycled Reads” (Panasonic Lumix 2500 camera).

See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading her poems “Cesium for Certainty”, “Voluptuous, and Intelligent Too”, “Escape to Peace”, “Sledgehammers and Cheers”, “Orange Clouds and Blood-Red Sunsets”, “Kept my Eye on You”, “Vanquished by the Sleeping Giant”, and “Feeling of False Ownership” from the Down in the Dirt 6/20 book “Existential Threats” during the “Poetic License open mic 6/7/20 home edition” she hosted through a Facebook event page (this video was filmed from a Panasonic Lumix 2500 camera; posted on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and Tumblr).

See a Facebook live video stream of Janet Kuypers reading her poems “Cesium for Certainty”, “Voluptuous, and Intelligent Too”, “Escape to Peace”, “Sledgehammers and Cheers”, “Orange Clouds and Blood-Red Sunsets”, “Kept my Eye on You”, “Vanquished by the Sleeping Giant”, and “Feeling of False Ownership” from the Down in the Dirt 6/20 book “Existential Threats” during the “Poetic License open mic 6/7/20 home edition” she hosted through a Facebook event page (from a Samsung S9 camera).

See a YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading her poems “Cesium for Certainty”, “Voluptuous, and Intelligent Too”, “Escape to Peace”, “Sledgehammers and Cheers”, “Orange Clouds and Blood-Red Sunsets”, “Kept my Eye on You”, “Vanquished by the Sleeping Giant”, and “Feeling of False Ownership” from the v172 “Existential Threats” section of the Down in the Dirt 5-8 2020 collection book “Outside the Box” live 8/25/20 for The Café Gallery 2020 book reading series (Panasonic Lumix 2500 camera; on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and Tumblr).

See a Facebook live video stream of Janet Kuypers reading her poems “Cesium for Certainty”, “Voluptuous, and Intelligent Too”, “Escape to Peace”, “Sledgehammers and Cheers”, “Orange Clouds and Blood-Red Sunsets”, “Kept my Eye on You”, “Vanquished by the Sleeping Giant”, and “Feeling of False Ownership” from the v172 “Existential Threats section of the Down in the Dirt 5-8 2020 collection book “Outside the Box” live 8/25/20 for The Café Gallery 2020 book reading series (this video was filmed live and streamed from a Samsung S9 camera).

Sledgehammers         and Cheers Janet Kuypers 6/12/19 (written on the anniversary of the day President Reagan tells Gorbachev to “tear down this wall”) Caustic. That was you trying to win me over. Claiming any of my freedom that I struggled for, I had to escape, I had to break free. And yeah, you were the smooth talker, you promised peace and prosperity, but as soon as you got your claws into me, you tried to reduce me to nothing, and tell me that this horrendous hole was where I belonged. But I knew better, and I didn’t care what strongarm tactics you used. I was stronger than this and I could use my mind to not only gain freedom, but also gain wealth, and gain knowledge, to spread wealth, and spread knowledge, and spread freedom. You thought you could pull the wool over my eyes — over everyone’s eyes — but our freedom is ultimately stronger than you. So fight you I did; you knew you couldn’t suck me in, but you thought that wouldn’t stop you from taking others in too. So you built walls, and you flexed your muscles, you tried to be the one with the ultimate control, but after so much time, there was only so much everyone could take. So when people on both sides of your precious wall kept trying to hear each other through the armed guards, through the crumbling concrete, when everyone was sick and tired of your oppression, I thought, I know a thing or two about concrete, I know what concrete can do, so I had to speak. Tear down that wall, is all I could say, and after that the masses came with sledgehammers and cheers because all of us knew that your idea of how it should be could never be the way for the world — including me.

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