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
  • omnibus

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


  • The New York Fed’s Financial Stranglehold on Iraq
    Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    The New York Fed’s Financial Stranglehold on Iraq
    22 Jan 2020
    The US is threatening to seize Iraq’s oil revenues if Baghdad expels American troops.
  • No, he did-ant—call her Pocahontas—did he?!
    BAR Poet-in-Residence Raymond Nat Turner
    No, he did-ant—call her Pocahontas—did he?!
    22 Jan 2020
    "I’m a capitalist to my bones…” - Senator Elizabeth Warren, D-MA No, the dumb Don did-ant call Hocus-Pocus, “Pocahontas—“ did he?!
  • Martin Luther King and the Black Revolutionary Tradition 
    Eric Mann
    Martin Luther King and the Black Revolutionary Tradition 
    22 Jan 2020
     Dr. King brought a powerful and frontal indictment of the system of white supremacist, racist, capitalism.
  • Forty-Five Felons With Their Own Holiday: The U.S. Presidency
    David Swanson
    Forty-Five Felons With Their Own Holiday: The U.S. Presidency
    22 Jan 2020
    Margaret Kimberley’s new book on US presidents and Black people shows why the executive mansion is called the “White” House.
  • Letters from Our Readers 
    Jahan Choudhry BAR Comments Editor
    Letters from Our Readers 
    22 Jan 2020
    This week impeachment and China were topics of discussion.  We share your letters for “
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us