Dan Magers on His Poems

These are from a series of sonnets I published as a chapbook called Exploitation Poems over 15 years ago. The poems create scenarios and scenes from imaginary horror films. At the time, I was really obsessed with slasher films, Italian Giallos, Japanese pink films, etc. Another inspiration was this book of posters/covers/artwork from the Video Nasty era, which are usually more evocative/horrifying than the films they advertise.

Formally, I was teaching myself meter and iambic pentameter by reading a lot of Shakespeare and Milton. The poems are strictly metered, unrhymed sonnets. Additionally, this was an early attempt to get beyond the “beautiful” in poetry. I’m still happy with many of them, though looking back, I’m surprised by how lurid some of them can be.