Poetry and Science

I came across a really interesting site today that I thought I would share with you as National Poetry month comes to an end this week. Gillian K. Ferguson spent four years writing an extremely unique poetry collection -- The Human Genome: Poems on the Book of Life. The following is a brief explanation of the project from the site itself for which Ms. Ferguson won the Creative Scotland Award presented by the Scottish Arts Council.

"Four “obsessive” years in the making, this poetic exploration of the Human Genome encompasses 1000 pages – over four Sequences - of poems and poetic reflections interwoven with short extracts from interviews, academic papers, science websites, newspaper reports, poetry and books. Ranging from the mapping of the Genome and examination of the essence of its chemical ‘letters’, to the surrounding ethical issues and practical developments, the project also explores the Human Genome’s relation to areas such as religion, medicine, science, ecology and poetry. To reflect its interwoven ‘genomic’ nature, the project is presented here online as a ‘living’ work, inviting suggestions, ideas or extracts that might be further woven into the ‘genome’ of the project in the future."

I haven't had time to really look at the site as much as I would like to, but it looks fascinating. I don't normally think of someone artistic being interested in science. However, it appears that Ms. Ferguson has incorporated the two in a very unique way. I'll definitely be spending some time reading these poems over the next few days. Don't you just love the illustration from the site?