Double Effect: Poems - Paperback

by Martha Serpas (Author), Ava Leavell Haymon (Editor)

Martha Serpas's Double Effect reimagines a principle first outlined by St. Thomas Aquinas in Summa Theologica, which considers whether an action is morally permissible if it causes harm while bringing about a good result. In resonant verse pointed by Cajun language, these poems measure the good that can come from destructive situations: maternal deprivation, spiritual poverty, mania, ecological devastation. Serpas shows that compromised marshes and the Gulf of Mexico offer surprising sustenance and clarity. Time is marked by feast days, hurricanes, celebrations, accidents, and rescues along southern Louisiana's eroding coasts. Double Effect ultimately finds joy in survival, in love, and in spiritual fulfillment.

Author Biography

Martha Serpas is the author of three collections of poetry, including The Diener and The Dirty Side of the Storm. Her work has appeared in the Nation, the New Yorker, the New York Times, Poetry, and elsewhere. A native of south Louisiana, she coproduced Veins in the Gulf, a documentary on Louisiana's coastal land loss. She teaches creative writing at the University of Houston and is a hospital chaplain.