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.