Dark Testament

November 15, 2022
Smith offers a collection of blackout poems honoring victims of anti-Black violence using text from George Saunders' award-winning Lincoln in the Bardo (2017). The poet shares in her introduction that as the mother of Black sons, when George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery were murdered, she "found the agony crushing" and "struggled to navigate it." The poems utilize passages from Saunders' experimental novel, which Smith was reading in May 2020, to reflect on the lives and deaths of Floyd, Arbery, Philando Castile, Rodney King, and others. Except for Aiyanna Jones, Sandra Bland, and Breonna Taylor, the focus is on the killing of boys and men, although some poems speak from the perspectives of victims' mothers. An entry from the point of view of Sybrina Fulton, Trayvon Martin's mother, reads "I shall take away from here this resolve: / no more. // Dear boy, / That is a promise." Another standout is "White Witnesses": "Much that was New & Strange & / Unnerving had occurr'd this night. We / watched it all unfold from On-High: safe, separate, & Free- / the way we liked it." Photos of murals and memorials honoring some victims are moving while providing necessary emotional space for readers. Other poems raise questions, as when the narrator of "Black Witness" says they were "still too under siege myself to care" about the identity of the victim of an overheard act of violence, or when Eric Garner is described as being rendered "a weak passive child." Heartfelt, if uneven. (author's note, conversation between Smith and George Saunders) (Poetry. 14-adult)

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December 19, 2022
Poet Smith presents an affecting collection of blackout poems—pieces developed by redacting sections of an existing work to create something new—using passages from George Saunders’s Lincoln in the Bardo, which the author notes was chosen due to the work “eerily articulating the despair I held.” In an opening call to action that reverberates throughout the rest of the collection, Smith implores the reader to light a “conscience flame in honor of those killed by violence” and carry that flame “into a more just future.” Several pieces are named for victims of unjust killings, including Ahmad Arbery, Tamir Rice, and Breonna Taylor. Smith’s clever use of blackout poetry works as a visual counterpart for the book’s themes surrounding resistance against erasure while examining the close-knit bonds between family members and their deceased loved ones, such as Trayvon Martin and his mother in “Sybrina Fulton” (“Please know/ that you were a joy”), and serving as appeals to lawmakers, as in “Mr. Politician” (“We are/ angry,/ our hopes/ dead”). Written in response to the murder of George Floyd, according to the author’s introduction, this touching memorial to the Black lives lost to systemic racism is a rousing homage to those protesting in their honor, who refuse to let these deaths be in vain. Photographs feature throughout; a conversation between Smith and Saunders concludes. Ages 14–up.

January 1, 2023

Gr 9 Up-Blackout poems created from George Saunders's Lincoln in the Bardo express the howling rage and grief of the loss of Black lives and the call to action for change. In blackout poetry, the creator blacks out most of the words from an existing text, and the remaining words become the poem. This collection includes poems that are mostly named after victims of police violence and white supremacy; some are named after phrases and movements, such as #BLM. The introduction explains the creation of the poems, then the book is divided into two parts; Part One ends with color photographs of memorials and artwork to victims. The first poem, "No Justice, No Peace," reads "If such things as goodness and brotherhood and redemption exist, and may be attained, these must...require...the vanishing of the heartless oppressor....We are dead, I said....no more-". This short book ends with a conversation between Saunders and Smith in which they discuss their writing processes, what the "bardo" is, and more. Readers do not need to be familiar with Lincoln in the Bardo to understand the poems. Seared with emotional pain and truth, these poems use grief to provide context for the Black Lives Matter movement. VERDICT A compelling and thoughtful read, and a great introduction to blackout poetry. A strong first purchase for libraries.-Tamara Saarinen

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