My initial concept for this project was to write on concepts of death as they pertain to the modern, "digital" world. Several of my poems explore this, from dead digital pets ("dead tama"), to looking up your relative's tombstones online ("all transparent"), to the death of an A.I. ("missing phoneme"). As a lot of this project revolves around "dead" webpages, I thought it would be fun to turn my chapbook into a website as well. Particularly, one reminiscent of the "old web" of the late 90s-early 2000s.

When I began in this class, I told myself I wasn't going to write dark, "edgy" poetry. That changed quickly, as I found poetry to be a good outlet for negative emotions. I have always been interested in more macabre topics, such as death and the supernatural. (I don't think I'm alone in saying that, either.) So that interest sort of bled through into this collection.

However, I had a near-death experience at the end of April this year which changed my perception about death. To be honest, I wasn't actually in any real danger. But, at the time, I was fully thinking I was going to die. It was the most terrifying expereince of my life. After I had recovered in the hospital, I kind of had to re-evaluate this fascination with death- and with my own death. Honestly, I feel that I needed to have this horrific experience to truly begin my journey into appriciating my life, and appriciating those around me who i love and make it worth it to be alive.

I think, if I had to re-do this project, I would focus on a less depressing topic. Maybe write some more poems about catfish.