Shroud Poems

Since my tweener fiction book, The Peril of the Sinister Scientist, is about a kid who thinks he was cloned from the blood on the Shroud of Turin a friend, Rev Earl Langguth, gave me these two poems he wrote with permission to post them here.

SEQUENCING JESUS

Might Turin’s shroud be stained with Jesus’ blood?

Could we from it extract some DNA?

What might this tell us of our Saviour’s birth,

And might it cause the faithful some dismay?

While mitochondria from Mary came,

Might autosomes suggest a man to blame?

But then, how did the Holy Spirit work?

Could sequencing detect divine control?

Since Jesus was as human as ourselves,

Would not His chromosomes be normal, whole?

I doubt we could the slightest change display,

Divinity’s not shown by DNA

God’s Spirit did that special babe conceive,

He was to live and grow as Joseph’s son,

Would not the genes of David’s line be there,

As if with Joseph’s seed He was begun?

God’s Word is seen in all He did and said,

God sealed it by His rising from the dead!

SEND IN THE CLONES

Geneticists now seem about to gain

Abilities undreamt of in the past,

The monk named Gregor Mendel found the key

To make us think to master life at last.

The double helix yields its complex mold

As mystery relinquishes control

We hope at length to use new knowledge vast,

But know you this: you cannot clone the soul!

If you could clone a man, you’d get his shape

His kind of hair, his eyes, his build, his skin;

And outwardly you’d think him quite the same

But lawlessness would reign there, deep within

An animal in man-shape, not a man

You would achieve, far short of reason’s goal,

Without a spirit, lacking right and wrong—

Because, you see, one cannot clone the soul!

Oh yes, perhaps some scientist will strive

To clone himself— his wife— perhaps his kin;

And he’ll endure the years which then must pass

Before his claims to fame might then begin;

But he will soon discover how he’s failed;

His creature’s nature will be flawed, not whole

A beast which looks quite human, but is not!

Be warned: we cannot think to clone the soul!

I would be interested to hear what people think of Rev. Earl's ideas and will share any comments with him.

A few people have expressed concern about mentioning the possibility of human cloning in a book for kids, but The Peril of the Sinister Scientist is obviously fiction. Most younger readers would just consider Joshua's imaginative ideas part of the plot, and parents of kids old enough to understand the concept would find it an excellent opportunity to discuss such things with them. The book has a definite Christian message.

More About Harry Gilleland

For those of you who have read the review of Gilleland's book and his interview, here are some other things you might like to know about him: Harry E. Gilleland, Jr. is a 64-year-old southerner. Born and raised in Macon, Georgia, he earned a B.S. (1966) and a M.S. (1968) in Microbiology from the University of Georgia in Athens. Following three years of service in the U.S. Army as a captain, including a tour of duty in Vietnam, he returned to earn a Ph.D. in Microbiology from UGA in 1973. He then headed north to complete a two-year fellowship at the University of Western Ontario in London, Canada. In July of 1975 he joined the faculty of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center in Shreveport, Louisiana. After twenty-nine years of teaching microbiology to medical and graduate students and performing vaccine research, Harry retired in July of 2004. Today Harry lives in Shreveport with his wonderful wife Linda and their Corgi, Rusty. Harry enjoys being able to engage in his passion for writing full-time. Harry has previously published three books of his personal poetry: Poetry For The Common Man: Storoems and Poems (2003, ISBN 1411600649), Gilleland Poetry: Storoems and Poems (2005, ISBN 1411629272), and Poetic Musings of an Old, Fat Man (2008, ISBN 978-1-4357-1242-3). In addition, Harry has published two books of prose, a tale of fantasy entitled Bob the Dragon Slayer (2005, ISBN 1411633156) and a contemporary romance story entitled White Lightning Road (2006, ISBN 978-1-4116-8693-9). They are available at http://www.lulu.com/harry Harry Gilleland's poetry has been included in four multi-author print anthologies of poems and short stories, in several poetry e-zines, and on numerous Internet poetry forums, in addition to his own three published collections. His storoems (story-poems) and poems are readily accessible to all readers, including those who do not regularly read poetry. Harry views the world with a poet's eye. Poetic Musings of an Old, Fat Man is a new collection of 81 storoems and poems that will engage its readers by making them think about life and leaving them pondering their emotions and beliefs. It will also bring smiles and maybe a tear or two. Contained within this collection are forty-seven rhyming poems and "storoems", a format coined by Gilleland. A storoem is a hybrid between a story and a poem, i.e. a story told with poetic techniques. The collection also contains twenty-eight free-verse poems, four acrostic poems, and two limericks. These writings are poetry for the thinking person, be he/she someone who is a poetry lover or someone who normally does not read poetry. This poetry is easily readable and accessible to all -- poetry for the poet and the common man alike. A wide variety of subjects are addressed, including everyday life events, observations of nature, tales of fantasy, expressions of love, and much more. This wonderful collection will surprise and delight all readers. For more information about Harry Gilleland and his writing please go to http://www.gillelands.com/poetry. He has blogs at AuthorsDen.com, Facebook, and WordPress and he can be reached by e-mail at hgilleland@gmail.com.