Dark Testament: Blackout Poems

by Crystal Simone Smith

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.

Genres: Poetry, Young Adult, Social Justice, Race, Grief

160 pages, Hardcover

First published January 3, 2023

Reviews

[Gary Anderson]

Crystal Simone Smith’s Dark Testament is a moving collection of blackout poems drawn from Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders. In case some background is helpful here, blackout poems are derived from a pre-existing text by striking out some words and keeping others. A bardo, according to Saunders, is a “transitional state.” As he explains in the back matter, “There are many bardos, but the term is often used to refer to the space between death and the next rebirth.” Lincoln in the Bardo is an experimental novel about Abraham Lincoln’s struggle to return to leading his life while grieving the death of his son Willie, and Willie’s transition from death to whatever comes next.

Inspired by the murder of George Floyd and the resulting Black Lives Matter movement, Smith’s blackout poems focus on innocent Black lives lost to violence by law enforcement and other forms of racism. Dark Testament has three parts. The first section includes compassionate tributes to the dead and their families. This is followed by numerous color photos of murals and other memorials to those killed. The final part includes more tributes, but it also includes poems that feel more elegaic and angry than those in the first part.

Reading Dark Testament is enhanced by the jarring black rectangles and stark white spaces within the text. In the front matter, Smith explains, “The blank pages represent a pause of remembrance. They are meant to be experienced.” In this collection, we are not simply absorbing words; we are interacting with both literary and visual elements that deepen how we read. Knowing the subtractive process involved in creating the poems and the nature of the source material also intensifies how readers react to the poems.

Dark Testament is an excellent recommendation for young adult audiences who are attuned to social justice issues and may have encountered or created blackout poems in class or on their own. These poems can also serve as model texts for creating blackout poems, tribute poems, social justice poems, or many other purposes.

This review also appears on my What's Not Wrong? blog in slightly different form.

[Kim Lockhart · Rating 5 out of 5]

Crystal Simone Smith has created an elegy for wrongful death: Black lives violently ended by systemic racism. The poet is interested in the collective grieving process, how unbearable and compounded pain leads to action, protest, and a call to do better right now. As they say in Black Lives Matter protests: justice deferred is justice denied.

The poet works from the framework of George Saunders' highly inventive and elegiac LINCOLN IN THE BARDO. Smith is fully aware of the complicated role Lincoln as a historical figure has had, in relation to today's grieving families, and she leans into that conflicted space. The poet even compares love to suffering, because anything loved can be snatched away.

It is not lost on us that Black souls who are ripped away are remembered via poems of erasure. They have been literally subtracted from us, their lives gone with the blackout of a a heavy-handed marker. 

The author wants us to know that even in the midst of this dangerous space in which we find ourselves, there is hope. If each of us are moved enough, we will all burn for something better than this, a place where justice really is for all.

[✨meghanchristian · Rating 5 out of 5]

“…the idea of lost souls in a “bardo” state.”

This book focuses on many of the lives lost to police brutality and other topics surrounding public tragedies. It’s a black out type style that uses the text from Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders.

The concept for this poetry collection is something I’ve never read before. I am tempted to jump into Lincoln in the Bardo immediately after reading this.

This filled me with a lot of sadness and left me a little disturbed. I understand what the author wanted to do and I think that the way she conveyed her messages was masterful and unique.

I think everyone should read this if they are in the right mental head space.

[Janet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Had time for one more short book tonight. Powerful. And disheartening to say, I don't remember all these murdered boys and the events leading to them. I think I am sympathetic; I support the BLM movement; I teach a "We Need Diverse Books" graduate seminar, but I have never personally felt the pain. Makes me stop and think--a lot.

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

2023 Cybils finalist

Some very moving, others hard to follow. I think if I had read Lincoln in the Bardo this would have hit harder, and it did make me want to do that,

[The Rudie Librarian (Brian) · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5/5 stars. Blackout or erasure poems created from George Saunders’ Lincoln in the Bardo, these poems explore the senseless tragedy of racism and police brutality.

[Emily Labosky · Rating 5 out of 5]

This poetry collection moved me to tears. It’s really heavy. It makes me want to try my own blackout poetry. I can’t wait to meet the author at the bookmarks festival Saturday!

[Ashley Lewis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Blacking out lines from poems/texts from George Saunders' "Lincoln in the Bardo", a novel which follows Willie Lincoln as he navigates a strange purgatory and a transitional state known as "the Bardo" from the Tibetan tradition, Smith creates 43 poems to both honor the innocent loves that were senselessly taken and express hopes and anxieties for the future.

I'm afraid to say I only recognized certain names, as many didn't appear in mainstream media. However, it's clear that Smith carefully selected texts and which lines to black out represent the varying lives lost and acquaint readers with those who's murder was overlooked by the news. Smith further shows that the memories and impacts they left on the people around them continues on.

[Misse Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

My Reaction: A riveting intro to erasure poetry. Heartfelt and thoughtfully constructed.

When it comes to craft, I would go so far as to round my review up to 4.5/5. I think that Crystal Simone Smith definitely did a phenomenal job doing exactly what she set out to do: bringing attention to the plight of Black lives. Highlighting the many senseless murders of Black people, the mourning of those left behind and the prevailing sense of hope for change to a system that rarely honors equal justice.

But, it goes deeper than that. The author took George Saunders' book, Lincoln in the Bardo, as a framework for her own blackout poems which was simply and utterly AMAZING! A very fluid and well put together collection. While I've yet to read his full text, I have read several passages over time and coupled with Smith's retooling, it becomes a masterful collection of poetry.

My favorite poems were: GEORGE FLOYD, PROTEST SONG, BREONNA TAYLOR, and SAMARIA RICE & (TAMAR RICE), and ELIJAH MCCLAIN. I am also very thankful for the conversation between authors at the close of the book. It answered a few pressing questions I had regarding his support of her work and how their relationship came about. I love it. Kudos to author Crystal Simone Smith for a phenomenal showing.

Thank you to NetGalley for sharing an electronic ARC in exchange for my honest review. I hope you find this review helpful!

Publication Date: 1/3/23

[JL Salty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rating: pg for the topic being discussed, BLM movement, violent death of Black people in America, racism.
Recommend: jh and up, interested in style, use of the form of blackout poetry, the topic itself.

This book of poems is so clever and effective, as the blackout transforms one work into another, so the sudden and violent death of a loved one transforms lives of families and communities into something new. A shocking change. Whether or not a reader “believes” in or agrees with the BLM movement, these tributes to the loss of Black members of society, the lament of mothers and friends is powerful and worth the reader’s time. It might even shift the thinking a bit: it’s a very gentle approach, heartfelt, mourning, to a very contentious topic. I don’t entirely agree with smith - but I’m also not a Black person. This is not my story, and I’m glad to read and listen to hers. She tells it with power and conviction, beauty and pain.

I also really appreciated the conversation at the end between “Lincoln” author and Smith.

[Brianna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dark Testament is a collection of blackout poetry derived from Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders. The author, Crystal Simone Smith, wanted to pay homage to the many Black lives cut short by police brutality and racism. As a mother to a son, she found herself reckoning with the grief of knowing her own child is vulnerable to a similar fate based solely on the color of his skin. I found the poems to be moving and impactful. There are two parts, separated by full color glossy pages with murals and tributes to some of the lives lost. Smith does an excellent job of highlighting the portions of the original text to striking effect, with some poems dedicated to the honored dead and some to their mothers. I recognized some of the names, but not all of them, so I did take some time to look up their stories. This is a moving book of poetry and tribute to the Black lives cut short by violence. Highly recommend.

[Jeimy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I did not enjoy Lincoln in the Bardo, but I am glad that Crystal Simone Smith saw poems inside the segments. Not just poetry, but elegies to the myriad of Black voices lost because of police overreaction.

I borrowed this book from the library and had to read each poem several times. Each time it hit a little bit harder, each time a new layer would be revealed. As I read, I kept thinking of the last ten pages of The Hate You Give and how I ugly sobbed throughout. This is a powerful collection and I'm glad Saunders supported this project.

[Joshua Gage · Rating 5 out of 5]

Erasure poetry is a funny thing. Dating back to the mid-20th century (though some scholars argue it goes back even further), to write erasure poems, one must start with a known text and then blackout parts, or erase parts, or draw over parts, to use the remaining text to create a new, original poem. The poet's task is to transform the original text into something new, but also something meaningful, even while it might be fragmented and leaping from thought to thought.

Smith's work is incredible, and she creates these mournful, angry, vatic poems about the Black victims of police violence and the language used in the #BlackLivesMatter movement. I'm not experienced enough with this form to understand it fully, but the poems I've read in this collection are moving and emotionally charged, and readers will step away from this book changed for the better.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Cybil's finalist! Crystal Simone Smith, crushed by the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery and George Floyd, had been reading George Saunders' book, Lincoln In The Bardo, and began to "see" words as messages from others who had met their own deaths in other horrific ways. These are blackout poems, told by victims or their mothers, for remembrance, for hope, and to readers, they will also be heartbreaking. In the way "Say Their Name" has become important to many, Smith chooses the words that could be said. For me, in Denver, remembering Elijah McClain felt important; a good child, a tragic loss. His words: "so unfair. so keenly discriminating./I believe you would have recognized me for the great I was." Photos of murals and memorials honoring some victims are included in the book, too. It is made even more poignant because of its reality. There is an author's note between Saunders and Smith.

[Laryn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book I would give 100/100 it really is about the harsh reality of this world. Pertaining to black people and the killings of many. To a poem about George Floyd to Breonna Taylor these black out poems really do hit you hard, as a person of color or a person with human decency. This book creates great conversation and makes the reader think in ways you have may never thought about. Mentally it does get to you as I recommend this book to people who are mentally mature, or 18 and up. This book really does shed light on all the victims whose names have not been said enough. From being killed from police brutality or in the hands of white people. The racial injustice talked about in this book is something I have been searching for in a lot of books, as it talks about it very well. Crystal Smith I commend you for doing such a beautiful job on this book as I appreciate it as a reader.

[Kristen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have always loved black-out poetry--it was one of my favorite activities to do with students when I was still in the classroom. And this is a powerful collection. With chapters dedicated to the many black victims of police brutality, Smith takes us on a ride through the tragedies and the Black Lives Matter movement.

What I found most interesting was that all the poems come from the same book--Lincoln in the Bardo. A supernatural book about Lincoln's grief over the loss of his son inspires a collection of black-out poems? Well, I guess I need to read that one too!

[Hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think this is an interesting collection of poetry. I love the publishing of Blackout Poetry and how this will help highlight it as an art form and way of communicating. The poems are generally short, but pointed. I don't know if having more knowledge of and/or reading "Lincoln in the Bardo" would have made this more impactful, but I found myself wanting more context (I have not read and had to look up a synopsis for "Lincoln in the Bardo"). I did like the Q&A with the "Lincoln in the Bardo" author at the end of the book, I thought this really helped provide more context for the poems and drive home the intent of Smith, as well as enhance the collaborative element of the novel and the nature of fighting for equal rights. The inclusion of full-color-photo inserts commemorating victims who were highlighted first by poem was also moving.

[Jenniffer Grant · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Dark Testament Blackout Poems" by Crystal Simone Smith is a captivating collection that left a profound impact on me. Through the art of blackout poetry, Smith reimagines existing texts in a way that is intense, powerful, and deeply moving. Each poem is immersive, drawing me into its world and evoking a range of emotions. Some pieces brought tears to my eyes, while others filled me with hope. The sparse yet profound language of the poems resonated with me on a deep level, leaving a lasting impression. Additionally, the artwork featured in the book further enhanced the experience, adding another layer of meaning to the poetry. I wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone seeking a transformative literary journey.

[Ray · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thankyou to netgalley.com for a copy in exchange for my honest review. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Thoughtful, moving, stunning in words and imagery. A powerful tool to show that literature is more than just words on a page. Each poem was unique - truly telling the story of each life lost & emphasizing the importance of their lives, so it didnt feel like the author was telling the same story over and over.

So unique in that Smith took the work of a fellow writer and used sections of his book to create the poetry. The conversation at the end showed the true comradery and trust between the two.

Cannot wait for it to be published to purchase a physical copy.

[Mags Dares · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Children's Publishing Group for an advanced copy of Dark Testemant in exchange for an honest review.

This was a phenomenal poetry collection. This was the first collection of poems I have read using black out poetry and it was done spectacularly. Smith's use of George Saunders, 'Lincoln in the Bardo' to create a new narrative surrounding BLM and the lives lost due to police brutality was simply put: beautifully tragic. Dark Testemant was exactly that: a testament to the people whose lives were lost due to negligence, fear, and racism at the hands of those sworn to protect and serve. I cannot recommend this collection enough.

[Cathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

[Alicia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Absolutely a powerful set of poems in a different powerful voice than say Amanda Gorman. These Dark Testament poems by Smith serve to put names in black and white (and black out poetry style) who were served injustices at the hands of police. Using their names, their stories, their situations, it's an all-encompassing set of poems that she provides some context for ahead of time (like the blank pages in between as a breath/resting place between the stories) and the purpose of the poetry.

At the beginning of Poetry Month, I couldn't think of a better way to kick off some additional poetry.

[Erikka · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some beautiful Blackout poetry reflecting the lives and experiences of some of the many many Black individuals we’ve lost to hate and police violence. Tamir Rice’s hits particularly hard, as does Breonna Taylor’s. I think it would have been better in print because in the digital copy, I could still see the other text and it was distracting. These names will live on, even though it should be the people themselves living and thriving. But as long as we remember, we can make lasting change.

[Mitzi Mack · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lyrical verse, in blackout style, documenting the powerful lives in Black America, that led to revolutions in the form of protests, to proclaim civil rights as deemed by the Constitution of America, yet serving as a sacrifice. Blackout….black out… as if to erase, the ink is black and the page is white, verses in song saying, can you hear me now? This book serves as a testament or memoir for those that gave to be heard!

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent use of blackout poetry in regards to BLM movement. Black victims of police brutality are honored with the poetry in a poignant yet fierce style. This book would pair well with Ain’t Burned All the Bright by Reynolds and Griffin. Both books are highly accessible and deeply compelling.

[Kasey Giard · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m blown away by this book. Already, I feel like I need to read it again and let the words sit with me for a bit.

I’ve never read blackout poems before. For anyone also unfamiliar, these are poems that are made by removing some words from a page of text, leaving the words of the poem behind. Removed words are marked out with black boxes.

I also wasn’t familiar with the book that Crystal Simone Smith used to create her poems, LINCOLN IN THE BARDO. I read the sample pages on Amazon and will probably buy the novel as well. It’s an unusual book and centers around grief, which made it a great book to create these poems from. I love the writing style.

So the poems. Each one is titled. Some titles are the names of Black victims of unlawful killings. Others refer to other individuals or groups. So many gripped me by the heart. The grief and shock come through so clearly.

I love the Q&A discussion between the poetry collection author and the author of LINCOLN IN THE BARDO that’s in the back of the book. I thought that conversation added a lot of context, and it was really cool to see one author support another’s work like that.

Another really cool thing about this collection is that the title was inspired by a poetry collection by Pauli Murray. Murray was an women’s rights and civil rights activist who did incredible work throughout her career. I’d never heard of her until this past year, and now it seems I see her name everywhere.

All in all, DARK TESTAMENT is an incredible tribute to the lives lost and to truth and justice. An incredible resource for school libraries and creative writing courses.

Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions my own.

This review will post to my blog on 1/7/23.

[Nicole Bell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Powerful art. The blackout poems, each one, gave me pause to reflect and honor. I look forward to reading more work by her.

[Cynthia Young · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought it was a brilliant concept to write blackout poems from a novel instead of a newspaper, where the ideas were more focused. Loved it.

[Aryanna Tunstall · Rating 3 out of 5]

These were beautiful poems that I could not stop staring at. They were hard to swallow but an old wound that needed to be exposed.

[Hoover Public Library Kids and Teens · Rating 4 out of 5]

"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."[School Library Journal]