Flood Plain

The poems of Flood Plain might be put forward as a type of evidence, data or samples carefully collected for study. But they are also much more than this— they are the poet's own testimonies, first-hand records revealing, page after page, her powers of observation and witness. “The flood plain is a field again,” Sewell writes in “Restorative Justice,” a reminder that natural disasters take many forms. “The flowers will last until the first snow / of winter as everything conspires / to bury us in what we couldn’ t see or imagine.” Indeed, poetry may be our flood plain: the site on which we absorb these truths, and the means to process the weight of it all.