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


  • British Colonial Racism Comes to Roost
    Black Agenda Radio with Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
    British Colonial Racism Comes to Roost
    14 Jan 2020
    Although Britain never experienced a civil rights movement on its own soil, such movements did take place “in its colonies...in anti-colonial and anti-apartheid struggles,” said Adam E
  • Dems Won’t Impeach Trump for Crimes They Favor
    Black Agenda Radio with Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
    Dems Won’t Impeach Trump for Crimes They Favor
    14 Jan 2020
    Donald Trump is guilty of many impeachable acts, but the Ukraine scandal “pales into insignificance compared to everything else Trump has done,” said University of Illinois professor of internation
  • Trump is a Criminal, But the Democrats Belong to the Same Mafiia
    Glen Ford , BAR executive editor
    Trump is a Criminal, But the Democrats Belong to the Same Mafia
    09 Jan 2020
    The Republicans and Democrats are united under the American imperial banner, and only differ on details of strategy to maintain Washington’s global domination.
  • Freedom Rider: Iran and the Need for Black Activism
    Margaret Kimberley, BAR senior columnist
    Freedom Rider: Iran and the Need for Black Activism
    08 Jan 2020
    Black Americans, as perpetual targets of US lies and attacks, should be the first to reject Washington’s rationales for war with Iran.
  • Sheep-Dogging on Steroids: The New Democratic Party Anti-War Activists
    Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor
    Sheep-Dogging on Steroids: The New Democratic Party Anti-War Activists
    08 Jan 2020
    The rhetoric of the Democratic “progressives” only gives cover to the ongoing criminality of the U.S. state and its commitment to permanent war – with congressional approval.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us