Month: July 2017

Janet Kuypers’ “2017 Austin Rhythm Fire” 4 poem set 3/20/17 w/ improv jazz band

by

On March 20th, 2017, people got together at Southern Hospitality in Austin TX for a show to celebrate the spirit of Lonzell Haggary with an evening of mini-features, all potentially accompanied by an improv jazz band. Janet Kuypers was the final feature performance for the evening, where she performed poems reflecting different themes, including “Keeping a Record of Going Too Far”, “Yearning to Break Free”, “Entering the Lake of Fire” and “Only an Observer”.

[tubepress mode=’playlist’ playlistValue=’PLYa-AZK78_hpjMRZ4jK7ubzVqM1-WhwZA’ ]

2017 Austin Rhythm Fire chapbook

    Before the show started she also released a chapbook of the poems included int his performance, and this chapbook “2017 Austin Rhythm Fire” is still available online even during her reading, so anyone could (and can) download as the chapbook as a PDF file for free any time.

Poems included in this performance:
“Keeping a Record of Going Too Far”
“Yearning to Break Free”
“Entering the Lake of Fire”
“Only an Observer”

We Were Poems

by

Can you tell me
can you tell me
oh brave one
can you tell me this sky
is blue for you,
the same blue for me.
This guy was always blue,
young girls
were always running in grand fashion
running into the arms of love.
I am neither wrong nor right.
You are neither there nor here,
not here at all.
I am not here at all,
We were poems,
poems written in the night,
poems written in the day,
poems written for you,
for me,
simply poems,
streams of thought leading to no thought, leading
to you, to me, to us,
to forever

You Me and Forever Love | Poem by Joyce Bell Willie Simpson

by

 

 

You Me and Forever Love

The moonlight fails            the thought prevails              to live a lie                              and yet i spy                                  through the keyhole of my being                        .      Love lies there alone          come out I say                        come out I pray                      and fill me                              so I may return your love to thee

 

 

The Whittlers Poem by Jackson

by

He leans forward,

there was a time, sonny

when I saw old men whittling
at the courthouse
sitting there on benches these men
were in overalls and wore
wool hats stained
from the sweat of
days spent in the heat,
in the field,
old grey wool hats
stained with work.
They whittled, these old men
and spat tobacco juice
on the courthouse steps
and sometimes they grabbed
their stubble’d chin
and waved a skinny finger
as they made a point about
“them this”
and “them that”
but mostly it was the weather
and the outlook for the weather
and how they could work no more
and they whittled at the courthouse
and could be seen on Saturday,

our day in town.

I can sometimes see those
old farmers
spitting tobacco juice,

whittling,

and one of them looks
not quite at me but
above,

“Is that your boy?”

 

 

by david michael jackson

Janet Kuypers “Crazy” 4/23/17 short story feature

by

Janet in Crazy show Janet in Crazy show

On April 23rd, 2017, people got together at the weekly Austin poetry/comedy/music open mic at Kick Butt: Spoken and Heard, and Janet Kuypers was the feature performance that night, where she chose to perform her short story “Crazy”. (The video playlist below shows not only the 4 videos of the performance in 2017 but also teaser video where Kuypers read portions of the story at open mics around Austin TX to advertise the show, as well as two video sections of the first time she ever performed that show, in Chicago.

[tubepress mode=’playlist’ playlistValue=’PLYa-AZK78_hoiba0zivDI6MdWnvu0eKbi’ ]

Crazy short story chapbook

    Before the show started she also released a chapbook of the short story, and this chapbook “Crazy” is still available online even during her reading, so anyone could (and can) download as the chapbook as a PDF file for free any time.

Janet in Crazy show