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