Janet Kuypers reads poem "Communication" at live show Janet Kuypers reads...(More)

Janet Kuypers reads poem "Communication" at live show Janet Kuypers reads the 1997-2005 poem "Communication" (this is the ultra-long version, with the entire original version, plus the additional verses developed in 2005) at her poetry feature show at Jesse Oaks, at the Politically UNcorrect poetry open mic and poetry slam on 06/21/07 (the night before her birthday) Janet Kuypers also released a chapbook through cc&d magazine (Scars Publications: http://scars.tv) that contained all of hte poems she read at her UNcorrect feature in Gages Lake, Illinois (Lake County, north of Chicago). For more information on this writing and other writings from Janet Kuypers, go to http://www.janetkuypers.com for more information and details. This is the poem: communication I now that we have the information superhighway we can throw out into the open our screams our cries for help so much faster than we could before our pleas become computer blips tiny bits of energy travelling through razor thin wires travelling through space to be left for someone to decipher when they find the time II got into work the other day and got my messages out of voice mail: mike trisko left me his pager number and told me to contact him with some information mike wright told me to call him at the office between ten thirty and noon lorelei jones told me to check my email because she sent me a message i had to read so i first returned mike wright's phone call but he wasn't in, so i left a message with a coworker and then i dialed the number for mike trisko's pager listened to a beep, then dialed in my own phone number then i got online, checked my email read a note from ben ohmart, emptied out the junk mail realizing i didn't actually get a hold of anybody i tried to call my friend sheri but i got her answering machine so i said, "hi - it's me, janet - haven't talked to you in a while - " at which point i realized there was nothing left to say - "so, give me a call, we should really get together and talk" III sara and i were late for carol's wedding rehearsal which was a bad thing, because we were both standing up in the wedding and we were stuck in traffic, and i asked, "sara, you have a cel phone, don't you?" and she said "yes" and i asked, "well, do you know carol's cel phone number, cause if you do, we can call her and tell her we'll be late -" and she said, "no - do you know it?" and i said "no" IV I was out at a bar with Dave, and I was explaining to him why I hadn't talked to my friend Aaron in a while: "You see, we usually email each other, and when we do, we just hit 'reply.' when you get an email from someone, instead of having to start a new letter and get their email address, you can just hit the 'reply' button on the email message, and it will make a letter addressed to the person who wrote you the letter originally. so one of us sent the other a letter, and it had a question at the end, so i hit 'reply' and sent a response, with another question at the end of my letter. so we kept having to answer questions for each other, and we just kept replying to each other, sending a letter with the same title back and forth to each other. well, once i got an email from him and there was no question at the end, and so i didn't have to send him a response. so i didn't. and we never thought to start a new email to one another. so we just lost touch." and then it occurred to me, how difficult it had become to type an extra line of text, because that's why i lost touch with him and then it occurred to me, no matter how many different forms of communication we have, we'll still find a way to lose touch with each other V now that we have the information superhighway we can throw out into the open our screams our cries for help so much faster than we could before but what if we don't want to communicate or forget how too busy leaving messages, voice mails, emails, pager numbers forgetting to call back what if we forget how to communicate VI i checked my email address book recently, and the people i email the most are the people that live in the same city as me, all of whom i know the phone numbers of, all of whom are only a local call away. in fact, one of my friends lives a block- and-a-half away from me, on the same street as me, but i still email her as much as i call her, even though i could just walk over to her house and have an actual conversation with her. VII now that we have the information superhighway we can throw out into the open our screams our cries for help so much faster than we could before people want to instant message people buy their name as a domain name people get e-mail accounts people set up web pages and you know, I got a cell phone I've got a land line but my phone isn't ringing off the hook it's like I've gone fishing, sat on the boat in the lake, put out the bait and no one's biting VIII i wanted to purchase tickets for a concert but i was shopping with my sister and wasn't near a ticket outlet but my sister said, "i have a portable phone, you can call them if you'd like" so she gave me the phone, and i looked at all these extra buttons, and she said, "just press the 'power' button, but hold it down for at least four seconds, until the panel lights up, then dial the number, but use the area code, because this phone is a 630 area code, then press 'send'. when you're done with the call, just press 'end', and make sure the light turns off." so i turned it on, dialed the number, pressed 'send', pressed my head against the tiny phone and the line was busy and i couldn't get through IX i wanted to get in touch with an old friend of mine from high school, vince, and the last i heard was that he went to marquette university. well, that was five years ago, he could be anywhere. i talked to a friend or two that knew him, but they lost touch with him, too. so i searched on the internet, to see if his name was on a website or if he had an email address. he didn't. so i figured i probably wouldn't find him. and all this time, i knew his parents lived in the same house they always did, i could just look up his parent's phone number in the phone book, and call them, say i'm an old high school friend of vince's, but i never did. and then i realized why. you see, i could search the internet for hours and no one would know that i was looking for someone. but now, with a single phone call, i'd make it known to his family that i wanted to see him enough to call, after all these years. and i didnt want him to know that. so i never called. X now that we have the information superhighway we can throw out into the open our screams our cries for help so much faster than we could before but then the question begs itself: who is there to listen(Less)