Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire

Buzzed In By Lewis
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
01 Feb 2018
🖨️ Print Article

5 in the morning, ‘The Lewis Sawyer Experience’
early morning Boys Club in Papa Sawyer’s Cave:
My lick for Lewis, “Lewis Sawyer, is my lawyer—”
his classic chuckle-comeback, “Well, you’re in bad shape then!”
Poets and last words, “Well, David McBurney is my attorney…”
But Lewis was a bullhorn, shouting names of our Political Prisoners,
Prisoners Of War, languishing forgotten in gulags across imprisoned
nation. He put 59,000 watts beneath their wings,without fanfare—
While reminding us: we’re just in Minimum Security…

Being buzzed in to the Mother Ship by Lewis
felt safe, welcome—presence appreciated—in
Good hands, a trillion times more reliable than Allstate
Lewis was the first face I’d see at the station—
unerring source for five-star information

Warmth was his uniform; his smile his badge,
reflecting respect back like a mirror from the
Mountaintop: all the authority a badass Angel,
sweet scientist, who could handle ‘situations…’
Required; I emerged from ‘Lewis Sawyer Experiences’
with double shot expresso optimism

A modest, minimalist, Monk life-stylist—
Count Basie of Kindness—
Not a whole lot of notes there
but his voicings sung and swung;
Duke Ellington of Passion:
Things he loved, he loved madly—
speaking of love—Lewis was LOVE
Not a mushy, gushy, sentimental bubblegum LOVE
But, an I believe in you, when no one else believes LOVE
I honor your light, anything I can do to amplify it LOVE
As you stand on stage, I’ll sit in the audience LOVE
Anything you need early in the morning LOVE
Release your worry beads, I got your back LOVE
Harness your hardships, “too big to fail” LOVE

Let’s suppose that place
preachers speak of Sundays
Exists; suppose I make the cut—
I bet Lewis will be there buzzing me in… Lewis Sawyer:
Presente!

poetry

More Stories


  • John Perry
    Trump’s Interference Invalidates the Presidential Election in Honduras
    10 Dec 2025
    Trump's active and very public intervention in the Honduras election invalidated the results.
  • Cradle Correspondent
    Gaza's Smoke Clouds the West Bank's Flames: The Colonial Project Made Permanent
    10 Dec 2025
    As international eyes stay locked on Gaza, Tel Aviv is executing its most aggressive campaign of ethnic cleansing and land theft in the occupied West Bank since 1948.
  • Jill Clark-Gollub , Margaret Flowers
    First International Day Against Unilateral Coercive Measures
    10 Dec 2025
    Unilateral coercive measures, sanctions, are weapons of mass suffering. This new international day marks a global rejection of the West’s economic warfare against sovereign nations.
  • Maurice Carney
    United States Secures its National Security Interests In Congo Peace Deal
    10 Dec 2025
    The so-called "peace agreement" between Rwanda and Congo prioritizes U.S. access to mineral riches. The violence carried out against thousands of civilians continues.
  • x
    Anthony Karefa Rogers-Wright
    Year in Rear View: What the Lack of Principled and Pronounced Opposition Reveals About that US Left (Or, Why Oppressed People Best Watch Your Backs)
    10 Dec 2025
    Trump’s accelerated fascism is met with the silence of a compromised U.S. "left." Its institutions, tethered to capitalism and the Democratic Party, reveal they are part of the machine they claim to…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us