Double Effect: Poems

Barataria Poetry Series

by Martha Serpas

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 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.

Genres: Poetry

78 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 19, 2020

Reviews

[Gail Storey · Rating 5 out of 5]

From Martha Serpas's Twelve-Word Bio, we know we're in for a highly original sensibility in her new book, DOUBLE EFFECT: Poems. The double effects throughout brilliantly captivate both mind and heart. The poems mesmerize even as they awaken, as in "Original Sleep": "Wake that woman up!/Her stupor lowered/like netting...." This image made me gasp with the pleasure of contrast: "In the picture the prie-dieu is vacant/as a bar after closing." Serpas soothes and shocks in quick succession: "they mean they love you--the greatest good--/but they only break your heart." ("Double Effect: St. Joseph's Altar, March 19)  As in her previous work, her intelligence pierces the sensuous with startling images: "the storm decreates the water/And revises the dangling roseaus" ("The Landscape is the Language"). A Cajun French-English Glossary at the end of the book allows us to soak in the language even more, particularly in "Coda:To Hell, Bébé."  Mystery, wit, love, pain, body and spirit--it's all here, a stunning treasure. 

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

More quietly powerful poems from Martha Serpas, with her characteristic feel for language and the land. These are poems to read aloud more than once, then to ponder. I hope this volume (her fourth) wins her the reading public her carefully-crafted work merits.

[William · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5*