P. D. Edgar's poem "Thread" has been paired with a dress from Jun Takahashi's Spring/Summer 2024 UNDERCOVER show titled "Deep Mist". Takahashi's strapless mini dress features a sheer tulle overlay meant to resemble an alluring fog of spider silk - complete with bouncing embroidered spiders and a veil of pink rose appliques. The roses match the pink of the beguiling veil worn by the model on Takahashi's runway. "Art," as Oscar Wilde wrote in "The Decay of Lying," is a "veil, rather than a mirror." I was very taken by Edgar's poem. The Web-as-veil functions as both a meditation on how a digital interface (or flooded inbox) can frame almost every human experience as well as how a human mind might be forced to conform to the logic of web browsers. Especially web browsers that increasingly rely on search results generated by AI. One of the poem's most significant moments comes after the speaker shares an observation of spiders and a light that attracts moths "the size of green." The line "i can not tear the Web" is one I will not soon forget.
— Paul Cunningham, Editor
Thread
P.D. Edgar (@pdedgar30) is a poet scholar with a creative writing MFA and media studies degree from the University of Alabama. He's now a Ph.D. Candidate in Texts and Technology at the University of Central Florida, where he researches the platformization of poetry culture. He's read for The Florida Review, designed and edited at Black Warrior Review, archived Kenyon Review, and founded re•mediate, which explores computer-assisted writing. His previous hand-writing is available at SAND, OROBORO, Burning House Press, Ghost Proposal, and Michigan Quarterly Review.
