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Samantha Terrell
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the poet
Nominated for The Forward Prizes and The Pushcart Prize, Samantha Terrell is the curator of international poetry series SHINE. She lives with her family in Upstate New York, and has had her poetry anthologised in Door=Jar, Eunoia Review, Green Ink Poetry, In Parentheses, The Orchards Poetry Journal and elsewhere. Samantha's many collections – most recently, Delta Function – have consistently garnered five-star reviews.
the poems
AI and the
Animal Kingdom
Fabricatus intellĭgos, a man-made being with the capacity for intelligent
processing and output
It’s been said what separates Homo sapiens from the rest of the
Animal Kingdom is intelligence – Reasoning Skills, Speech, Forethought.
Turns out we’re not very good at Forethought, since we’ve created a being
that renders the use of Reason and Speech as obsolete.
All those crunching numbers, tabulating potential outcomes,
answering queries, researching options – who needs ‘em?
But what about relationships made around the water cooler?
The client who becomes a family friend?
Apparently creating Fabricatus intellĭgos has proven something else, too:
Homo sapiens aren’t unique because of a boundless capacity for intelligence,
but our boundless capacity for love.
Fluidity
It’s not always easy to know
what’s been taken from us,
or what we have taken from others.
Dignity is a fluid thing –
one in the moment, and
another in hindsight.
We put words in each others’ mouths,
then take them out again
to suit us.
We are wet clothes
hanging on the line,
in the rain,
beginning to sag with the
weight of double-saturation –
not knowing how long we must hold on.
Social Psychology
Another ink-blot test, this time for society,
is sure to reveal our perception of reality.
Forget the shapes for a moment.
We can’t even agree on the parameters.
The blur of lines one would only characterize
as grey, another sees as black and white.
Should the paper be held up, or laid down?
Never mind, time to look. What do we see?
To one, a ballot box; to another, a crown.
Publishing credits
AI and the Animal Kingdom / Social Psychology:
exclusive first publication by iamb
Fluidity: Fulcrum Review (Issue 2)