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Eleven and Two, plus Eight

Janet Kuypers
edited 07/15/11
derived from the 2007 poem “Seven and Seven, plus Eighteen

maybe I’m an observer
like an astronomer
looking out into the universe
trying to understand what makes everything
everything

maybe I’m meant to be an astronomer
studying things colder than ice, far away

you know, Pluto is an aberrant ball of ice
I don’t know, I was taught it was a planet
but then they told me no,
it’s not
it’s just a ball of ice from the Kuiper Belt

but molecule by molecule,
we originate from stars

and now I know we are all linked,
our bodies formed from stardust

but outer space
is a violent place
violent explosions create the stars
and our earth has earthquakes,
avalanches, volcanoes
tsunamis, typhoons

and in all of this madness
somehow I found you
I’ve survived the thunder
and the lightning
the blizzards,
the hurricanes
and the tornadoes
I’ve lived through the drought
I’ve survived it all
I’ve even been dealt a near fatal blow
                                                             from humanity

and with you I have walked on the tops of glaciers
      crouching down from the violent winds
      looking down into the beginning of time
with you I have watched solar storms
      and the geomagnetic aberrations of the Aurora Borealis
      from near the Arctic Circle

and we’ve looked at Venus through our telescope
and I’ve watched you photograph Orion in the night sky

so with these observations,
I thee wed
because after all of my searching throughout the univserse
I’ve found what I’ve been looking for


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of this poem read live at the 07/19/11 mini-feature night at the Café in Chicago at her feature Astronomy 101
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See feature-length YouTube
video 07/19/11 of Janet Kuypers performing her poetry in her feature Astronomy 101 @ Chicago’s the Café
download chapbook PDF filePDF
Download this writing in the free 07/19/11 PDF
feature chapbook
Astronomy 101
video video See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers performing her observer’s improv (S, based on the poems seven and seven, plus eighteen, observations: nine and six, ten and ten, plus two, eleven and two, plus eight, and observer’s love poem) live 10/7/14 at Chicago’s the Café Gallery
video video See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers performing her observer’s improv (C, based on the poems seven and seven, plus eighteen, observations: nine and six, ten and ten, plus two, eleven and two, plus eight, and observer’s love poem) live 10/7/14 at Chicago’s the Café Gallery
video videonot yet rated
See YouTube video (Cfs) of Janet Kuypers reading 4 of her poems 9/16/15 at the Poetry At The Gallery Cabaret open mic in Chicago, Knelt and Cried, Eleven and Two, plus Eight, Timing is Everything and Holding My Hand
video videonot yet rated
See YouTube video (Cps) of Janet Kuypers reading 4 of her poems 9/16/15 at the Poetry At The Gallery Cabaret open mic in Chicago, Knelt and Cried, Eleven and Two, plus Eight, Timing is Everything and Holding My Hand


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