Testament bears witness to traumas—cultural, personal, and spiritual—as well as moments of revelatory transport. While the catalyzing tragedies and dilemmas are never out of mind, these nuanced poems maintain faith in the act of speaking as a pathway through despair and toward transformation. ... From “Perspective” And where does your desire for immortality fit in a cosmos predicated on loss? (Gain, too—but not for you.) Better to commit yourself to decay, try to find beauty in it. And if you can’t, it may at least seem beautiful to another, far away.