"Let Reason Roll: Race, Religion and Reflections" is the poetry debut of Elmer Beard, a lifelong freedom fighter and retired English professor. The work features 83 poems and eight decades of portraits that take a poignant look at life and death through the eyes of an African-American octogenarian. Beard, the Octo Griot, begins this literary journey with a prayer and ends with a eulogy in "When We Die." The southern storyteller reminisces about rural life and recollects his youth in "The Family Farm" and "What We Gained." Racial issues of the past in "Ole Confederate" and the present in "Black Lives Matter" punctuate the collection as they have the history of the country.