No Bedtime Stories of Soil

<p>In his debut No Bedtime Stories of Soil Landon Smith brings to the page what</p><p>The Last Poets delivered to the stage. He writes with the prescience of Amiri</p><p>Baraka as he explores polyrhythmic political themes with messages in his</p><p>poetry akin to essays by James Baldwin searing truths that force America to</p><p>take a long hard look at herself. A reckoning. A eulogy. The last sermon on a</p><p>crumbling mount. Smith's voice is the fire we need this time. In Ode to Kalief </p><p>he writes I hear you in the silence sometimes/The empty space between what</p><p>your life should have been and what it became in the hollow space you were</p><p>left to erode signaling his collective hearing of the violent silencing of Black</p><p>atrocities in histories past present and approaching. Smith's voice is the clarion</p><p>call for these shifted and shifting times-a beacon for what needs our most</p><p>urgent attention. This book is the one we need right now. Primed for the kairos</p><p>moment. The manual for next.</p><p>-adrienne danyelle oliver author the body has memories and collective madness</p>