Zinc poem by Janet Kuypers

Zinc

Janet Kuypers

from the “ Periodic Table of Poetry” series

After my injectable medication prescription started,
I learned that the drug I had to take
would suppress my immune system,
which meant I’d have to start getting flu shots,
dress for the weather because it’s easier
to get a cold or a fever,
and get more religious
about taking more vitamins and minerals.

Time to o.d. on vitamin C.
Take some D when the sun’s not out.
Get your daily B, E, iron, calcium, and Zinc.

It’s funny, I see Zinc throat lozenges
for when people get sick
to try to speed their recovery,
but I figured I should hedge my bets
and take the supplements every day.

When I told my sister I started taking Zinc
after the injectable medication regimen began,
she was stunned. “You can take that much?
I can’t take that much Zinc like that daily.”

But the thing is, Zinc is in nearly one hundred
enzymes needed for plant and animal life.
So whether or not you think the idea
of eating this metal is good for you or not,
it’s apparently needed, and if it’ll help me stay healthy
I’ll make a point to somehow consume my share.

Besides, when cold season comes annually
I see more and more advertisements
for zinc lozenges and over the counter medications,
because zinc will help stop any infections
so that people can get on with their lives again.

I mean, two billion people in developed countries
actually even have Zinc deficiency,
which could cause growth retardation,
delayed sexual maturity, regular diarrhea,
or the one I have to fear: infection susceptibility.

So I just have to keep in mind
the ways that Zinc is needed in the body…
Being the forth most common element
(behind iron, aluminum and copper),
it’s easy to want to consume Zinc
because you think it’s entirely for your own good.
But even though Zinc as an element
is hard and brittle,
too much Zinc can actaully
sap the copper from our bodies
(because we apparently need
a lot of metal elements in our body
to keep us strong and make us work right).
And the way too much Zinc
can sap the copper from our bodies,
soil with too much Zinc from local mining
could mean that plants (which need metals
to live, and we need those plants for food)
won’t be able to absorb the other metals they need.

And since it was discovered in the seventeen hundreds,
alchemists used to burn zinc from the air,
to get what they called “white snow,”
or “philosopher’s wool,” because it collected in puffs.

Hmmm. Philosopher’s Wool.
Not half bad sounding.
Maybe I can wax philosophic
about how Zinc — this philosopher’s wool —
can protect my immune system,
and help me grapple with the
philosophical questions of life.

But really, after the Germans discovered
Zinc in the seventeen hundreds, they started
using it as a plating of steel,
and we have later found
that Zinc is a great anti-corrosive agent,
because it’s more reactive
than iron or steel.
Zinc was used throughout history also in brass,
but thinking of those nearly one hundred enzymes
used for plant and animal life that use Zinc,
it made me think of all of the compounds
and ions Zinc is now used for:
Zinc gluconate is that dietary supplement,
Zinc chloride is added to lumber as a fire retardant,
Zinc sulfide is even used in luminescent paints,
and hey, let’s make this a little more personal
for us humans here,
Zinc pyrithione is used for anti-dandruff shampoo,
and Zinc chlorinate is used in deodorants…

So yeah, from what I’ve learned
Zinc is needed in so many ways,
on so many levels, for both us animals
and the plants we need to live our lives.
It’s strange to think that one element like Zinc
can be used for many different purposes
(like stopping metals from corroding
or stopping wood from catching fire)…
But we also have to keep in mind
that Zinc, in nearly one hundred enzymes
needed for our plant and animal life,
proves that we need Zinc within us
as well as around what we need.
I don’t know, I’m just glad
that my stomach doesn’t react badly
to taking Zinc supplements daily,
because since I want to make sure
I’m as healthy as I can be
for as long as I can be,
taking more of a metallic element like Zinc
than the average person does
really is a small price to pay.

Janet Kuypers’ “How Music is Poetic” 9/3/16 song & poetry feature/show

      
    Below are video links from a September 3rd 2016 (9/3/16, or 20160903) music&nbp;/ poetry performance (with accompanying guitar and percussion music by John) of Janet Kuypers’ Austin poetry feature through Expressions 2016: September Song! at Austin’s the Bahá’í Center (at 2215 E M Franklin Ave, Austin, TX 78723) that incorporated poetry into music. This is why they started the set with their song&nbp;/ poem that they previously performed at the sold out theater show from Beast Women Rising 9/21/14 of her original Mom’s Favorite Vase song “What We Need in Life”, with her poem “Fantastic Car Crash&^#8221; nestled between verses two and three. To break up the guitar, Janet then performed her Periodic Table poem “Tin” (with Chicago locations changed to Austin Texas downtown locations, of course). But in this set the ended their show with her poem (set to John’s original song) “Made Any Difference”.

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Before the show started she also released copies to most everyone there of a chapbook of the writings she was performing in her show (in the order they were performed), and all of the pieces from this reading were also released electronically in a “How Music is Poetic” chapbook, which you can download as a PDF file for free any time.

Read the poems and songs below:

What We Need In Life
with “Fantastic Car Crash” between verses 2 & 3
Tin
Made any Difference

        photo by Garrison Martt photo by Garrison Martt photo by Garrison Martt photo by Thom Woodruff

This Poetry is Money!, Janet Kuypers’ Periodic Table of Poetry 7/7/14 Chicago feature

This Poetry is Money! , Janet Kuypers’ Periodic Table of Poetry 7/7/14 Chicago feature

In one of Janet Kuypers’ installments of This Poetry is Money! , Janet Kuypers’ Periodic Table of Poetry 7/7/14 Chicago feature

In one of Janet Kuypers’ installments of Periodic Table of Poetry poem readings (in her effort to write a poem for every element in the Periodic Table, to later become a book), Janet Kuypers was the feature at Waiting 4 the Bus in Chicago on July 7th 2013 (7/7/14) with “this Poetry is Money”.

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the 7/7/14 this Poetry is Money Janet Kuypers chapbook
Download this poem in the free PDF file this Poetry is Money chapbook,
w/Periodic Table of Poetry poems.

Writings included in this show:
Lanthanum
Erbium
Rutherfordium
Hafnium
Thorium
Protactinium

 

“Visionaries Behind the Stars,” Janet Kuypers’ Chicago 9/12/14 Poetry “Love Letter” Periodic Table of Poetry feature

In one of Janet Kuypers’ installments of Periodic Table of Poetry poem readings (in her effort to write a poem for every element in the Periodic Table, to later become a book), Janet Kuypers was the feature at “Poetry ‘Love Letter’” in Chicago on September 12th 2014 (9/12/14) with “Visionaries Behind the Stars”.

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the 9/12/14 Visionaries Behind the Stars Janet Kuypers chapbook
Download this poem in the free PDF file
Visionaries Behind the Stars chapbook,
w/ Periodic Table of Poetry poems.

 

Writings included in this show:
Seaborgium
Meitnerium
Berkelium
Hassium
Dubnium

Partial Nudity book release & interview 9/27/14 on Chicago’s WZRD 88.3FM radio

WZRD Radio (88.3 FM), with a D.J. Cathleen Schandelmeier-Bartels, had a lengthy interview with Janet Kuypers 9/27/14, where she talked about the inspiration for the release of her new poetry book set, for both “Partial Nudity” and “Revealed” (two large volumes that were also broken down into smaller editions of books, including “100 Haikus”, “Give me the News” (of news poems and newsworthy poems), “Let me See you Stripped”, “Twitterati” (of twitter-length poems, “Part of my Pain”, “Rape, Sexism, Life & Death” (poetry on both sexism and almost losing your life, with Slovak translations of some poems), “Say Nothing”, and “when you Dream tonight” (of poems about dreams, including some classic dream poetry). During this interview, she also read never-before-performed haiku poems from her 2014 release of “Partial Nudity” (and most of the haiku poems were also in the mini book “100 Haikus”).

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the 9/27/12 6 Second Poems chapbook

Writings included in this show (in the order performed):

Arsenic and Syphilis
civil
mirror
instead
need
Eight People Outside
floor
of his thirst
hold
fought
strike
console
relegated
extinct
My New Grocery List
Couldn’t
ruminating
barbed
gone
out there
knife
pet
kindness
found
pleading
only
humans
stagger
addiction
At the Camp
Suicide (heat) Poem
sting