'The Robots Are Coming' (Videopoem)

O, great nation, it won't be pretty.

 from "The Robots Are Coming"

If you happen to be among those opposed to artificial intelligence because you think robots eventually will take over our world, The Robots Are Coming, from Motionpoems 7th great season, is for you. A dramatic and chilling animation of Kyle G. Dargan's excellent poem of the same title, Julia Iverson's cinematic treatment, in mostly red and black, won't leave you guessing what happens next, when the "postindustrial terrors whose / tempered paws—five welded fingers /— wrench back our roofs, / siderophilic tongues seeking blood, / licking the crumbs of us from our beds." 

Dargan's poem appears in his fourth poetry collection Honest Engine (University of Georgia Press, 2015) and also was published in Best American Nonrequired Reading 2014 (Mariner Books, 2014).

Poem Text

In addition to Honest Engine, Kyle Dargan has published Logorrhea Dementia: A Self-Diagnosis (2010), Bouquet of Hungers (2007), and his debut collection, The Listening (2004), all from University of Georgia Press. 

Recipient of the 2003 Cave Canem Poetry Prize (for The Listening) and the 2008 Hurtson/Wright Legacy Award (for Bouquet of Hungers), Dargan teaches literature and creative writing at American University. He is the founding editor of Post No Ills magazine.

Kyle Dargan Profiles: American University, Hurston/Wright Foundation, Poetry Foundation

Kyle Dargan's poems can be found online at Beltway Poetry Quarterly, From the Fishouse, Open Letters Monthly,  Poetry Foundation, Split This Rock, and other publications.

Also of interest: "Poet Kyle Dargan on the Affluence and Austerity of D.C." at Moyers & Compay, April 5, 2013

Kyle Dargen on FaceBook

Julia Iverson on FaceBook