Code

by Charlotte Jeane Pence

Overview

Poetry. At its center, CODE features a narrative sequence with three characters: a new father, a mother dying young from an inherited disease, and that mother's own DNA. In light of exciting new developments such as CRISPR that would allow us to alter genetics and eradicate certain diseases, this book approaches ethical questions from an angle that science cannot. Ultimately, CODE is a book about grief—specifically, how to accept it. These poems attest to how we preserve what is lost, not only through story and poetry, but also through nonverbal means like cave art and DNA.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781625578273
Publisher:	Black Lawrence Press
Publication date:	06/01/2020
Pages:	116
Product dimensions:	4.90(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Charlotte Pence, Mobile's Inaugural Poet Laureate, is the author of Code (recipient of ASPS book of the year), Many Small Fires, (recipient of the Foreword Reviews silver medal Indie Poetry of the year) and The Branches, the Axes, the Missing (recipient of the Black River Chapbook Prize). She is also a MacDowell fellow, Sewanee Writers Conference fellow, and a Vanderbilt Patterson Fellow. A graduate of Emerson College (MFA) and the University of Tennessee (PhD), she is now the director of the Stokes Center for Creative Writing at University of South Alabama.

Table of Contents

I 1

Orderly 2

The Weight of the Sun 3

Attractions 5

While Reading About Semiotics 6

To Muck and Muck and Muck 7

Touring Cueva de las Monedas I. 8

Sometimes, When a Child Smiles 9

Among the Yellows 11

Joy Is Earned 13

II 15

Codicil: An Essay 16

Cell 18

Breathing Lessons 20

III Code: A Sequence in Twenty-Three Parts 21

"DNA's Main Role is the Long-Term Storage of Information" 22

A. and T. Meet 23

A.'s DNA Speaks at Child's Conception 24

A., the New Mother, Wants More Instructions 25

DNA Knows Once You Say It, You Can't Take It Back 26

A. Measures Her Child in the Hallway 29

T. Leaves the Doctor's Office 30

What DNA Knows 31

A. Experiments with Crispr on Herself 32

T. Cleans Out the Closet 33

DNA "is to": A Quiz 34

A. Waits for More Lab Results 36

T. Dresses Little U. for Her Birthday Party 37

DNA Offers Some Palindromes on the Patent of CRISPR 39

At the Grocery Store, A. Stares at Packaged Chicken 40

T. Writes a Letter to A. 41

DNA Cautions About Editing the Germline 42

After the Last Prognosis 43

A's DNA Attempts to Console 44

T. Takes Little U. to Her First Day of Kindergarten 45

A. Listens to the Evening 47

DNA Speaks to Little U. 49

T. at the Limits of the Possible 50

IV 53

Anonymous 54

Summer in Dorothy's Garden 56

Stubby Horses and Why We Paint Them: An Essay 58

V 67

Lightening 68

Love Between Parents 70

Helen of Troy 72

A Pantoum from the Headline: "Y-Chromosomal Adam and Mitochondrial Eve Never Met" 73

Touring Cueva de las Monedas II. 74

Black Silhouettes against a Pink Sunset 75

A Swim Stroke in Verse: Seventeen Giant Manta Rays and One Hut 77

Zwerp 82

How to Measure Distance 85

Some Madness There 88

Mourning Chicago 89

I'm Thinking Again of That Lone Boxer 91

Grief 92

If It Ever Leaves, Where Does It Go? 93