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

AB
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
14 Jan 2014
🖨️ Print Article

by BAR poet-in-residence Raymond Nat Turner

Still the syn-tactical surgeon

With precision pen, atomic tenor,

Suturing my severed tongue

 

AB

by BAR poet-in-residence Raymond Nat Turner

 

Ho Chi Minh penned in

Prison Poems, the

Poet must also

Know how to lead an attack

Not a god or stamp, you

Are still my father, son and

Holy-ghost, post-Langston,

Sterling poet warrior

 

Still the syn-tactical surgeon

With precision pen, atomic tenor,

Suturing my severed tongue

 

Still the armory

Issuing anti-fracking ordinance

For strikes on Mengeles

At Monsanto

 

Still the arsenal

Supplying smart bombs for

Our war on government-guided

Attack-Negroz like

Da Men of Steele — Shelby and

Michael — Long Dong Silver, AKA,

Thom-Ass Clarence, Ward Connerly,

Colin Powell and dem imperialist Rice wenches…

 

I searched frantically for you at the end

Of the Apollo’s Sekou Sundiata celebration;

I jumped over a chair, just missing you, at

The Harlem Stage tribute to Abbey Lincoln;

 

Finally, caught you at the Schomburg’s

Langston Hughes Auditorium, at the

Fidel-Malcolm Meeting book talk—

Forgave you for slipping

On Iceberg Slim, and

Told you, “I LOVE YOU…”

 

Raymond Nat Turner can be contacted at upsurgejazz.com.

 

Raymond Nat Turner © 2014 All Rights Reserved

 

 

Do you need and appreciate Black Agenda Report articles? Please click on the DONATE icon, and help us out, if you can.


More Stories


  • Hugo Chávez FrĂ­as
    Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    SPEECH: Statement at the 61st UN General Assembly, President H.E. Hugo Chávez Frías, 2006
    24 Sep 2025
    “ U.S. imperialism…is making desperate efforts to consolidate its hegemonic system of domination. We cannot allow this to happen.”
  • Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    Gaza Is Not Rwanda: Its Suffering Should Not Perpetuate that of Congolese
    24 Sep 2025
    Likening the suffering of Gazans to that of Rwandan Tutsis perpetuates the narrative that has dominated the African Great Lakes Region for 30 years, allegedly justifying the sacrifice
  • Anthony Karefa Rogers-Wright
    On the Right to Exist: Rosh Hashana Represents a Choice for Jews of Conscience, a New Year for Zionism, or a Commitment To a New Era of Jewish Values
    24 Sep 2025
    This Rosh Hashana falls during an ongoing genocide, creating a profound moral crisis for Jewish people. The holiday demands a rejection of the state committing these acts in the name of Jewish safety.
  • Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
    (Don’t) “Say his name!”
    24 Sep 2025
    "(Don’t) 'Say his name!'" is the latest from BAR's Poet-in-Residence.
  • Tunde Osazua
    The Never Ending U.S. Killing Fields of Somalia
    24 Sep 2025
    Somalia remains a laboratory for imperialist military attacks and interventions intended to prevent the formation of a stable and secure state.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us