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

if it takes 100 years
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
06 Dec 2017
🖨️ Print Article
if it takes 100 years

I am the North Star—
Hope; Never wavering, organizing,
burning thorough bars, walls, wire—
I am consciousness of all
creatures, crystalline water,
clean, sweet air, black soil
From forgotten reservations

I am non-GMO, organic apples,
pears, lettuce, tomatoes, spinach
Springing from beads of sweat
mixed with midnight oil—
I am not the latest sneakers, phones
from Black Friday Madness,
Celebrity Worship or
Dumbed-down gossip ‘bout ‘stars’

I am coagulated blood
of gunned down doctors wafting from
Women’s reproductive rights—
Flowering from fertilizer of guilt
I am freedom, loving
Whomever I choose…

I am single-payer
Healthcare rising from Big Pharma
body-slams/lies of lobotomized politicians;
I am affordable housing
clubbed from corrugated cardboard sleep;
I am free education—
Peace studies writhing free of
handcuffs, cutting off circulation…
I am smoldering ashes of a
burned down Black Baptist Church
Repudiating ‘race’ with pain

I am revolution—
Socialism passing freely, back and forth
between metal detectors/bomb-sniffing dogs—
Arriving just moments ago:
…Having been here forever…

Raymond Nat Turner © 2017 All Rights Reserved
Raymond Nat Turner is an acclaimed poet and performing artist. Find much more of his work at http"//upsurgejazz.com.

poetry

Do you need and appreciate Black Agenda Report articles? Please click on the DONATE icon, and help us out, if you can.


More Stories


  • Black Agenda Radio
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Black Agenda Radio February 23, 2024
    23 Feb 2024
    This week we hear about the implications of the anti-imperialist struggle in the African nation Guinea-Bissau.
  • DRC
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Colonialism, Imperialism, and Conflict in the Congo
    23 Feb 2024
    Abayomi Azikiwe joins us to discuss events in eastern Congo, the role of US backed nations such as Rwanda, and the history of exploitation and imperial control which caused the…
  • Immigrant Justice Network
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Bipartisan Consensus for Punitive Immigration Policies Continues - Part 2
    23 Feb 2024
    Aly Wane of the Immigrant Justice Network discusses immigration in the second part of a two-part interview. Punitive immigration policies are bipartisan, with groups such as Haitians being targeted…
  • Guinea-Bissau
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Guinea-Bissau Struggles Against Imperialism
    23 Feb 2024
    Rafiki Morris joins us from Washington D.C. to discuss the upcoming demonstration, “Open the Peoples National Assembly in Guinea-Bissau” and why this action is so important.
  • BT News
    Jemima Pierre, BAR Editor and Contributor
    Haiti Doesn’t Have a ‘Gang’ Problem, It Has a US Imperialism Problem w/ Dr. Jemima Pierre
    21 Feb 2024
    Dr. Jemima Pierre joins BreakThrough News to discuss the nationwide uprisings in Haiti where thousands of demonstrators have flooded the streets calling for the ouster of the unelected Prime Minister…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us