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


  • Ajamu Baraka and Gerald Horne
    ​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist , Dr. Gerald Horne , BettBeat
    Epstein Class vs. Iran: "They’ll Blow Up the World"
    04 Mar 2026
    BAR Editor and Columnist Ajamu Baraka joined BettBeat Media, alongside Dr. Gerald Horne, to discuss the US imperialist campaign against Iran amid the ongoing genocide of Palestinians and how the same…
  • ​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
    Iran and the Psychopathology of White Supremacy
    04 Mar 2026
    Western threats against Iran and other nations reveal the persistence of white supremacist ideology.
  • Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    How Liberals Support Trump's War Against Iran
    04 Mar 2026
    “I don’t like Trump but Iran is bad,” is the siren song of feckless liberals. This moment calls for condemnation of the U.S. and unreserved support for the Iranian people and for their state.
  • Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    EDITORIAL: Iran, Third World People and U.S. Foreign Policy, Palestine Perspectives, 1979
    04 Mar 2026
    “The events in Iran are a symptom—of a 20th century disease called imperialism.”
  • Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    US and Israel Aid Sudan by Attacking Iran
    04 Mar 2026
    The US and Israel’s wholly unprovoked attack on the sovereign nation of Iran has given Sudan a hand in their own battle for sovereignty.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us