Janet Kuypers

Janet Kuypers’ 3/20/14 Chi Fi poetry show “Resistance is Futile”

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See YouTube video of the Janet Kuypers 3/20/15 show “Resistance is Futile” at Chi Fi in Chicago (filmed with a Canon fs200 video camera), of poems relating to Star Trek

See YouTube video of the Janet Kuypers 3/20/15 show “Resistance is Futile” at Chi Fi in Chicago (filmed with a Canon Power Shot video camera), of poems relating to Star Trek

See YouTube video of the Janet Kuypers reading her poem Red Matter in her 3/20/15 show “Resistance is Futile” at Chi Fi in Chicago (filmed with a Canon fs200 video camera)

See YouTube video of the Janet Kuypers reading her poem Red Matter in her 3/20/15 show “Resistance is Futile” at Chi Fi in Chicago (filmed with a Canon Power Shot video camera)

See YouTube video of the Janet Kuypers reading her poem Outer Space and the Sound of Silence in her 3/20/15 show “Resistance is Futile” at Chi Fi in Chicago (filmed with a Canon fs200 video camera)

See YouTube video of the Janet Kuypers reading her poem Outer Space and the Sound of Silence in her 3/20/15 show “Resistance is Futile” at Chi Fi in Chicago (filmed with a Canon Power Shot video camera)

See YouTube video of the Janet Kuypers reading her poem Eugene’s Limit in her 3/20/15 show “Resistance is Futile” at Chi Fi in Chicago (filmed with a Canon fs200 video camera)

See YouTube video of the Janet Kuypers reading her poem Eugene’s Limit in her 3/20/15 show “Resistance is Futile” at Chi Fi in Chicago (filmed with a Canon Power Shot video camera)

See YouTube video of the Janet Kuypers reading her poem Utopia Planitia, Titan and the Kuiper Belt in her 3/20/15 show “Resistance is Futile” at Chi Fi in Chicago (filmed with a Canon fs200 video camera)

See YouTube video of the Janet Kuypers reading her poem Utopia Planitia, Titan and the Kuiper Belt in her 3/20/15 show “Resistance is Futile” at Chi Fi in Chicago (filmed with a Canon Power Shot video camera)

And a bonu poem performance at the end of her show…

See YouTube video of the Janet Kuypers reading her poem Diburnium in her 3/20/15 show “Resistance is Futile” at Chi Fi in Chicago (filmed with a Canon fs200 video camera)

See YouTube video of the Janet Kuypers reading her poem Diburnium in her 3/20/15 show “Resistance is Futile” at Chi Fi in Chicago (filmed with a Canon Power Shot video camera)

You can also download the chapbook “Resistance is Futile” that contains all of these poems…

Resistance is Futile chapbook

Nitrium, bonus poem from the “Periodic Table of Poetry” series – based on the original name (before Natrium) for Sodium, #11, Na – by Chicago poet Janet Kuypers

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Nitrium

Janet Kuypers

(bonus poem from the “Periodic Table of Poetry” series)
based on the original name (before Natrium) for Sodium, #11, Na
started 1/16/15, edited and completed 1/29/15

I’ve been studying elements
in the Periodic Table, and when
I heard the word “Nitrium,”
it made me laugh
(thinking of Nitrous Oxide).
So I looked it up online…
The only thing I could find
was from the Memory Alpha
in Star Trek Wikia,
and they could only guess
that Nitrium was either an alloy
or a metallic element.

But the history buff in me
remembered that Nitrium
is a variant of natrium,
and it was the original name
for the element Sodium.

(I mean, doctors even call
low sodium levels in the blood
hyponatremia…)

So as I read up
at my Star Trek Wikia —
I suddenly realized how
essential this Nitrium really was:

If you remember basic chemistry,
sodium reacts violently with water,
disintegrating, or even exploding
(no no no, you’re thinking of salt,
that’s not straight sodium,
that’s why it mixes with water…)

And as I read, Nitrium
(which was the first name
for Sodium)
was prevalent in asteroids
and it was used
in so many places
in the construction
of Federation starships.

Now, when it comes to our own bodies,
Sodium (or should I say Nitrium)
controls blood pressure
and blood volume —
it’s essential in our bodies
to keep them running smoothly.

So it makes total sense
that Galaxy-glass vessels
used Nitrium in their ships,
from computers, to engines
to their life support systems.

Nitrium was so crucial
to the Cost of Living —
you see, I expanded my research
from Star Trek Wikia
to straight-up Wikipedia
and discovered that parasites
were eating the Nitrium
all over the Enterprise,
jeopardizing the ship’s integrity.

Because as I’ve learned,
with every Periodic Table
element out there
there’s a good side
and a bad side:
if Nitrium is used
all over the Enterprise,
something could easily come along
to destroy it as well.

I mean, think of it
in our own bodies:
when Sodium (or Nitrium)
reacts with water
and forms Sodium Hydroxide,
but this reaction
gets the Hydrogen so hot
that it burns.

And if Nitrium
was the original name for Sodium,
that probably explains why
you never see
a Galaxy-class starship
entering a planet’s atmosphere,
where there’s water in the air.
Because really,
the people at Star Trek learned
that even just a little water in the air
would be enough
to make their starship
disintegrate
around them.

…Really, whenever the Enterprise
actually goed to a planet,
they never land on the planet
with their big Galaxy-class starship,
they send a shuttle,
or they beam someone down,
because in this case,
the water in the air
that’s embedded in the atmosphere,
that water could react
with the Sodium —
oops, I mean,
that water could react
with the Nitrium —
and it might actually
do the Enterprise in.

As I said,
with all the elements
I’ve studied,
there’s a good side
and a bad side to them.
We might desperately need them,
but they also may somehow
do us in
if they’re mixed
in the just the right way.

Because if you sit in a lab
in the twenty-first century,
you can watch this element
react with water in a beaker —
and if you’re going
where no one has gone before
in the twenty-fourth century,
you might have to be sure
your Nitrium-rich ship
finds no water in space,
and finds no parasites
that may eat you
out of your only way home.

Thorium, from the “Periodic Table of Poetry” series (#90. Th) by Chicago poet Janet Kuypers

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Thorium

Janet Kuypers

from the “Periodic Table of Poetry” series (#90. Th)
7/1/14

Think of how many times
you’ve heard scientists say
(or maybe you’ve heard it
from people on daredevil tv)
“do not try this at home” —
knowing that someone,
somewhere
won’t heed this advice
and end up
with an unintended explosion
instead of a fantastic discovery
from their radical experiment…

Well, good thing one Swedish chemist
didn’t decide to “not try this at home”,
doing groundbreaking experiments
in his kitchen flat.
Though Jöns Jacob Berzelius < !—(yens yoke-ub bear-zeal-ee-us)—>
discovered a few elements,
he seemed so psyched
to name one new element
for the Scandinavian god of thunder, Thor.

And it’s kind of funny
that with his affinity for Thorium,
he never understood
Thorium’s radioactivity
(because, well,
when he discovered Thorium,
radioactivity hadn’t
even been discovered yet).

But after Thorium was discovered,
Thorium was used
for powering gas lamps
back in the day
when the world’s light
disappeared at nightfall.
But wait, Thorium’s radioactive,
and back in the day
they didn’t know this,
so did people get cancer
from radiation poisoning?

Well, maybe if
there was enough Thorium
in those gas lamps,
and maybe if that Thorium
wasn’t stopped from
getting to humans
by the glass surrounding the lamps…
Because only if you’d
eat Thorium (and maybe
only the supernatural God Thor
would eat Thorium)
maybe only if you ate it
only then might it make you sick.
        I mean, they still sell it
        today in camping lamps,
        unless you actually look for a lamp
        that’s Thorium-free…

But even when it came
to eating Thorium,
some people would do it
back in the ‘30s with x-rays
for detecting their cancer,
because at the time Thorium
was perfect for saving lives
thanks to those x-rays.
So with Thorium for cancer x-rays,
the new cancer risk
seemed like a fair trade-off
before they could find
a safer x-ray detection agent.

So yeah, there’s no way
a Swedish chemist
could have guessed it
when he discovered
the element Thorium
and wanted to name it
after the God of Thunder,
but Thorium can bring
some light into our world,
as long as we use Thorium
in just the right way.

Janet Kuypers performs poetry readings at the Cafe Gallery in Chicago 3/4/15 (on the anniversary of the foundation of Chicago)

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Janet Kuypers reading her poem “New to Chicago” from memory live 3/4/15 at the open mic the Café Gallery in Chicago (Canon fs200)

“new to chicago”

(poem by Jaet Kuypers)

I’m still new to this city
I know, I know, I’ve been here for years
but I haven’t gone to the Sears Tower Observatory
since my Junior Prom

but when I walk by the First Chicago building
the beams along the north side
sloping up, parabolic pillars curving up to the sky

when I walk by the First Chicago building
I walk up along the side
and lean up against one of the sloping pillars
press my body against the cold concrete
feel the cold against my chin, my breasts, by thighs

and look up along the curve, stretching up towards the sky

you know, these pillars look like race tracks
and I could see something come rushing down that curve
a matchbox car, a race car
a marble, a bowling ball
a two-ton weight

I see the speed, the power, and it
almost makes me afraid to look up

and every time I walk by the First Chicago building
I do the same thing, I do this little ritual
and it feels like the first time

Janet Kuypers reading her poem “New to Chicago” from memory live 3/4/15 at the open mic the Café Gallery in Chicago (Canon Power Shot)

Janet Kuypers reads portions of her India Journals< (from 20150111 9:25PM IST) at the open mic the Café Gallery in Chicago (Canon fs200)

Janet Kuypers reading William F. Meyer Jr.’s poem “Cave Woman / Cave Man Soliloquy I” from the Down in the Dirt collection book What Must be Done live 3/4/15 at the open mic the Café Gallery in Chicago

Janet Kuypers reading Catherine B. Krause’s “The Herd” from the current issue of cc&d magazine’s “the Curve of Arctic Air” live 3/4/15 at the open mic the Café Gallery in Chicago

Janet Kuypers reading Robert Bates’ prose “Knockout” from Down in the Dirt mag (the Jan./Feb. 2015 issue, v127) titled “Treading Water” live 3/4/15 at the open mic the Café Gallery in Chicago

Janet Kuypers reading C Ra McGuirt’s poem “If you read this poem, then you will die” from the 2015 “need to know” literary date book live 3/4/15 at the open mic the Café Gallery in Chicago

Janet Kuypers reading Rex Sexton’s poem “this is not a poem” from the 2015 “need to know” literary date book live 3/4/15 at the open mic the Café Gallery in Chicago

See YouTube video
of Janet Kuypers hosting the open mic 3/4/15 at Gallery Cabaret’s the Café Gallery in Chicago