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

Redouble our efforts…
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
22 Apr 2014
🖨️ Print Article

by BAR Poet-in-Residence Raymond Nat Turner

When our giants go down, our spines must straighten up and create new beginnings.

 

Redouble our efforts…

(For Robert Knight, Chokwe, Amiri,

And others known and less known…)

by BAR Poet-in-Residence Raymond Nat Turner

 

When our Knights are captured 

Or fall on battlefields, as they 

Surely must, and we lose their

Brilliant lights and we are

Scrambling to pry pens,

Swords, spears, bread and

Roses from stainless steel 

Grips of their icy hands—

Scrambling to hoist our 

Fallen banners, temporarily

Mired in mud and blood, 

Even higher, scrambling 

To staunch rivulets of

Brine from our sweetly

Shattered hearts…

 

When our giants — in 

All sizes — go down, 

Our spines straighten

Honoring, immortalizing,

Their legends, burnished 

Names, by divvying up

Cosmic, ancient, work

Creating them in the 

Beginning…

 

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


  • Alexander Rubinstein
    Black Money, Black Flags: How USAID Paved the Way for Syria’s Militant Takeover
    22 Jan 2025
    The United States leverages soft power through NGOs such as USAID. In Syria, USAID operated as a channel to help maintain relations with terrorist groups and facilitate regime change through the…
  • Black Agenda Radio
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    Black Agenda Radio January 17, 2025
    17 Jan 2025
    In this week’s segment, we discuss the incoming Donald Trump administration, why Trump was elected again, and what we may be able to expect in his term. But first, we begin with discussing a new…
  • Gerald Horne
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Gerald Horne: African Americans & A New History of the US
    17 Jan 2025
    Dr. Gerald Horne is an author and historian who currently holds the John J. and Rebecca Moores Chair of History and African American Studies at the University of Houston. Dr. Horne is a prolific…
  • Anthony Monteiro
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Anthony Monteiro on Trump's Inauguration and U.S. Politics
    17 Jan 2025
    Dr. Anthony Monteiro is a Duboisian scholar and founder of the Saturday Free School for Philosophy and Black Liberation. He joins us from Philadelphia to discuss the upcoming inauguration of Donald…
  • Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    Joe Biden's Terrible Legacy
    15 Jan 2025
    The moniker “Genocide Joe” is well deserved and one that Joe Biden can never live down, along with any other names that describe the damage he brought to the country and to the world. His legacy is…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us