This Mortal Coil: Poems of DNA
Ebook
Humans are composed by DNA, and through chemical action it maintains and renews us daily. This poetry book explores the many facets of our existence through the lens of our own DNA. Most of us know who our fathers are, but it's not that difficult to find someone who discovered in adulthood the uncomfortable truth through DNA analysis. DNA determines our personal identity, not counting the effects of environment. The topic of DNA covers race, medicine, sexual attraction, procreation, family, gender, vaccines, crime, eye and hair and skin color, COVID, longevity, national identity, mutation, relationships with parents and children, beauty and ugliness, and height, to name a few. For example, the miracle of birth is accompanied by a rush of hormones ensuring the bond between mother and infant. Some medical researchers are recording the DNA of large human populations, which will lead to broad advances in diagnosis and treatment. Some nations are recording the DNA of many or all of their citizens, which will lead to privacy invasion and police suppression. As with computers, such research is a double-edged sword. This book engages these subjects and more surrounding the central force of DNA.
“Eric Forsbergh has produced a rich and varied collection of poetry that showcases the versatility of his talent. He begins with an underlying theme of the biological basis of our uniqueness and expands into the societal and spiritual ties that bind us in our humanity. He gives us poetry of science, poetry of love and war, and poetry of life and death. I am grateful to have shared his poetic journey and look forward to future creations.”
—Jill Conley, president and CEO, Global Health, Education, and Research Solutions
“Who would have thought that poems about DNA could be made, by turns, whimsical, contemplative, witty, moving, and funny? Eric Forsbergh’s poems are all these. And these poems breathe, with intimacy and longing, like conversations among old friends.”
—John Y. Lee, academic dean, John Leland Center for Theological Studies
“In his masterful This Mortal Coil, Eric Forsbergh explores human heredity in narrative poems that surprise and delight with unexpected images. In ‘Rockport Graves,’ for example, Forsbergh writes of ‘two buried wives’ who ‘cannot realize how eternity, / like fanning out a hand of cards, / expands like an accordion.’ Drugs, war, love, even lobstering—the poet takes a wide look at life to suggest why we are who we are and why that matters.”
—Sally Zakariya, author of All Alive Together
- Title: This Mortal Coil: Poems of DNA
- Author: Eric Forsbergh
- Publisher: Resource Publications
- Print Publication Date: 2023
- Logos Release Date: 2023
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Ebook
- ISBNs: 9781666788341, 9781666788334, 1666788333, 9781666788327, 1666788325, 1666788341
- Resource ID: LLS:9781666788341
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2023-10-03T20:43:47Z
Eric Forsbergh is a DDS retired from private practice. He graduated with a BS in microbiology and zoology from the University of Tennessee in 1977, and from the University of North Carolina in 1981 for dentistry. He participated in three dental mission trips to Guatemala and Appalachia in the 1990s. He earned a master’s certificate in biblical justice from the John Leland Center in 2022. A Vietnam veteran, this is his second book of poetry.