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


  • AFRICOM Watch Bulletin #47
    Black Alliance for Peace US Out of Africa Network
    AFRICOM Watch Bulletin #47
    28 Jun 2023
    Black Agenda Report Contributing Editor Ann Garrison analyzes the continued plunder of the Democratic Republic of Congo by U.S. allies Uganda and Rwanda in the latest Black Alliance for Peace AFRICOM…
  • New Docs Link CIA to Medical Torture of Indigenous Children and Black Prisoners
    Orisanmi Burton
    New Docs Link CIA to Medical Torture of Indigenous Children and Black Prisoners
    28 Jun 2023
    The field of medicine is not inherently beneficial. Marginalized people have long been used for experimentation purposes, and the incarceration and surveillance states have participated in…
  • Organizers March on the White House to Say: Take Cuba Off the List!
    Natalia Marques
    Organizers March on the White House to Say: Take Cuba Off the List!
    28 Jun 2023
    Sanctions against Cuba and the designation as a "State Sponsor of Terrorism" create great hardships for the people of that country. Recent actions demanded that Cuba be taken #OffTheList.
  • World Refugee Day Marked by 108 Million Being Displaced
    Abayomi Azikiwe
    World Refugee Day Marked by 108 Million Being Displaced
    28 Jun 2023
    The recent drownings of 500 refugees in the Mediterranean call attention to the displacement of millions of people as a result of imperialist actions.
  • Super (Maxed Out): The Demise of Alabama Prisons
    Kriston Dowdell
    Super (Maxed Out): The Demise of Alabama Prisons
    28 Jun 2023
    In Alabama Covid funds are used for prison construction, opportunities for the incarcerated to be released have been eliminated, and violence is rampant. Alabama makes the case for prison…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us