Steven Karl on His Poems
Once sitting in a class taught by Prageeta Sharma she asked what it would take for poetry to be considered art. Art in this case is specifically referring to work prominently displayed in museums & galleries. The question has lingered in my consciousness for quite some time. “Terror Face” is the art of ghosts—the minuscule barely legible tracings of our horrors, of our terrors. The spirits misting in the air.
“Digital Terror Babble” enlists the help of ChatGPT to unveil programmatic agendas scripted for easy fingertip access & immediate consumption. How quickly fear and terror can be conscripted & reconfigured to fit a political ideology. Is the poem a blueprint for our next cerebral horror film, or are we already waking into everyday horror?