Author James J. Adams presents In the Midst, an updated edition of his previously published poetry collection, Put the Guns Down (1996). Adams's poetry aims at bringing attention to the violence-particularly gun-related violence-that affects our youth. It proceeds with authenticity and timelessness, presented in the edgy, spiritual voice of the street. As relevant now as it was in 1996, the poetry of In the Midst focuses on the lives of the young-as they are, and as they should be.

Put the GUNS down

Put your arms up. Act crazy,
be heroic & your grave is nigh

Fights used to take place with fists & cold mama jokes. Both the time & the day have taken a deadly twist

Presently, brotherly disagreements have a medieval or wild west style

GUNS are completing what captivity & disease started;
Burying Folks till our presence is through

A chunk of melted steel with a curved trigga