Dark Testament: Blackout Poems

 

My Thoughts:

The metaphor of this cover is everything. We see the obvious blackout, but also the wall or even bars with the black male figure behind those bars as dark testament pushes out of the large middle white space. Even the cover is poetry. 

The clever, clever use of George Saunders's Lincoln in the Bardo, an experimental novel that centers on the grief Abraham Lincoln undergoes after the death of his eleven-year-old son, Willie, is the raw material for poet Crystal Simone Smith's celebration of black lives in the midst of mourning and grief. The timeliness of these poems seem so current, and the idea of gathering this kind of conscientization and despair through a novel featuring Lincoln as well as a cast of characters "living and dead, historical and invented" is really brilliant and cathartic. 

Smith in her introduction lays out a charge for us as readers, 

As the poet, I task you the reader with lighting a conscience flame in honor of those killed by violence and carrying that torch into a more just future. A better world is within our grasp.

The titles of Smith's poetry pay homage to individual victims. Many names are well known in the Black Lives Matter movement: Eric Garner, Trayvon Martin, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd.  But even more names were unknown to me until now. The majority of the poems carry victim names. Others connect to the movement, like "No Justice, No Peace" or "Justified Homicide." 

I found myself forgetting that these were blackout poems. They really felt like a conversation and collaboration between Saunders and Smith.  The conversation between the two authors at the end of this was especially meaningful to me as an English teacher. The writing process conversations with the authors is a gem that needs to be in our writing workshops as "advice from the trenches." 

George [Saunders]: For me, writing is a process of trying to revise the falseness and manipulation out of the prose, and, by association, out of myself. 

From the Publisher:

In this extraordinary collection, the award-winning poet Crystal Simone Smith gives voice to the mournful dead, their lives unjustly lost to violence, and to the grieving chorus of protestors in today’s Black Lives Matter movement, in search of resilience and hope.

With poems found within the text of George Saunders's Lincoln in the Bardo, Crystal Simone Smith embarks on an uncompromising exploration of collective mourning and crafts a masterwork that resonates far beyond the page. These poems are visually stark, a gathering of gripping verses that unmasks a dialogue of tragic truths―the stories of lives taken unjustly and too soon.

Bold and deeply affecting, Dark Testament is a remarkable reckoning with our present moment, a call to action, and a plea for a more just future.

Along with the poems, Dark Testament includes a stirring introduction by the author that speaks to the content of the poetry, a Q&A with George Saunders, and a full-color photo-insert that commemorates victims of unlawful killings with photographs of memorials that have been created in their honor. 

Publication information:

Author: Crystal Simone Smith

Publisher: Henry Holt & Co. (January 3, 2023)