Kuipers, Keetje 2022
Fall open, unfold me. Hook and eye
undone with one hand, fingers that know
their way now in the dark. You contain
me: underwire circling my breasts in
half-bangle like the copper bracelets
lemniscating wrists of women who’ve
never worn bras, never held back
their multitudes.
– Keetje Kuipers, “Still Life with Nursing Bra”
Watch Keetja Kuipers’ 2022 reading with Charif Shanahan at the Chicago Poetry Center:
Keetje Kuipers begins at 22:21 minutes.
Read Keetje Kuipers’ interview with The Adroit Journal:
Issue Twenty-Nine: A Conversation with Keetje Kuipers | The Adroit Journal – The Adroit Journal
The morning of our interview, Keetje texted me to warn me she was feeling “super vulnerable” in a melancholy way. As we began to wander the reserve, the melancholy dissipated, but vulnerability endured. I’m grateful for that. Vulnerability is, as you will soon see, precisely what makes this conversation so special.
I drive through the yellow ribcage of maples
arching the road, past the butch woman I want
to be, raking leaves in her front yard, hair
slicked back at the sides.
– Keetje Kuipers, “Spa Days”
Watch Keetje Kuipers read her poetry as part of the Alaska Quarterly Review Reading Series:
