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

Another June 1
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
07 Jun 2023
đŸ–šïž Print Article
Another June 1
(Photo: Twitter @EllenMBlalock)

                                                                                              Another June 1

 

Another June 1. And I’m

Here. Vertical. Grateful.

Thankful.


Didn’t expect to see a score


Another June 1. And I possess

Poetic License to

Try and Trane—Practice in Empire and

Golden States. Wow!

The poems are not perfect. Not precious.

Still TSA-ok. Still not worthy of banning

in Sunshine, Magnolia, or Lone Star States.

Another June 1. And I’m proud

that a Brooklynite now 99; former IBM—

Italian Business Men—employee christened me

“The Town Crier.” “The Peoples Poet” sobriquet

Garnered in L.A.

Another June 1. And I’m proud

The poems still have blistered feet. Are still lunch

bucket, hardhat, steel-toe. Are still for food chain folks—

Backs bent in fields.

Still for the sped-up, overworked crowd. Still for the

Shoe leather legislators—street heat senators—Good

Trouble-shooters of all hues/All seasons: Arab Spring;

George Floyd Summer; Strike-tober; Occupy/ones coming

Another June 1. And I’m proud

of metastasizing with Boss Tweet’s blitzkrieg—

‘His’140 character vowel movements. ‘His’ daily,

dirty bomb Psy-Op sorties ‘starting’ 2016.

Proud of resisting despair—dark migratory moods of

Family, friends, and community.

I’m proud the poems have short weaponized shelf lives!

Proud they are disposable. Proud they are urgent wound

Care poems. Use them! Toss them in the trash! Flush them

down your toilets! I promise they won’t clog drains or pipes


 

© 2023. Raymond Nat Turner, The Town Crier. All Rights Reserved.

Raymond Nat Turner is a NYC poet; BAR's Poet-in-Residence; and founder/co-leader of the jazz-poetry ensemble UpSurge!NYC. You can Vote for his work at: GoFundMe and PayPal.

Black arts movement
poetry

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


Related Stories

Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
A few lines for the Poet Ojenke...
21 May 2025
RIP: Rise In Poetics to Ra
 BAR Book Forum: Damien M. Sojoyner’s Book, “Joy and Pain”
Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
BAR Book Forum: Damien M. Sojoyner’s Book, “Joy and Pain”
11 January 2023
In this series, we ask acclaimed authors to answer five questions about their book.
POEM: There it is, Jayne Cortez, 2009
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
POEM: There it is, Jayne Cortez, 2009
19 October 2022
The late Jayne Cortez spits fire, reminding us of the need to fight, resist, organize, and unify to seize power.
BAR Book Forum: Jon Jon Moore’s “The Calling: Poems”
Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
BAR Book Forum: Jon Jon Moore’s “The Calling: Poems”
16 February 2022
In this series, we ask acclaimed authors to answer five questions about their book.
Our ‘democracy’
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Our ‘democracy’
23 July 2021
Shangri-La—untaxed, socially-distanced champagne- caviar, Cayman Island, yacht crowds who
Pigment of your Imagination: Black magic mascots, props and sops?
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Pigment of your Imagination: Black magic mascots, props and sops?
15 July 2021
Could the pigment of your imagination cause Black magic mascots, props, sops— Black faces in high places—
A known known

Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
A known known

08 July 2021
“
there are known knowns. There are things we know that we know. There are known
Twerkers of the World you might
(Or when they go low we get high?)
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Twerkers of the World you might
(Or when they go low we get high?)
01 July 2021
“History repeats itself,  first as tragedy, second as farce.” —Karl Marx
The Town Crier’s Big Tooth Fund (For Drs. Rosenthal, Sapir and Ferdowsi)
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
The Town Crier’s Big Tooth Fund (For Drs. Rosenthal, Sapir and Ferdowsi)
23 June 2021
"From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs
” â€”Karl Marx
The Town Crier’s List of Who’s Who in the capitalist state machine
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
The Town Crier’s List of Who’s Who in the capitalist state machine
16 June 2021
“Ain’t no power like the power of the people— ‘cause the power of the people don’t stop!” bouncing 

More Stories


  • Defend the Cuba Revolution and Struggle for More Socialism, Not Less!
    ​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
    Defend the Cuba Revolution and Struggle for More Socialism, Not Less!
    15 Jul 2021
    Millions have turned away from the illusions and corruption of capitalism toward the possibility of organizing a society informed by the values of cooperation, equality, community, peace, and life.
  • The Assassination of Jovenel Moise: What Next for Haiti?
    Seth Donnelly
    The Assassination of Jovenel Moise: What Next for Haiti?
    15 Jul 2021
    Expect the Biden Administration to provide ongoing funding for Haiti’s brutal security forces.
  • The Julian Assange Media Blackout Must End
    Branko Marcetic
    The Julian Assange Media Blackout Must End
    15 Jul 2021
    Embarrassed by revelations, the Biden administration has now offered several “assurances” they would allow Assange to apply for transfer to a prison in his home country of Australia to serve out hi
  • BAR Book Forum: André Brock Jr.’s “Distributed Blackness”
    André Brock Jr.
    BAR Book Forum: André Brock Jr.’s “Distributed Blackness”
    15 Jul 2021
    The online aggregation and coherence of Blackness online, absent Black bodies, is what inspired the author’s book.
  • BAR Book Forum: Kyla Schuller’s Book, “The Biopolitics of Feeling”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Kyla Schuller’s Book, “The Biopolitics of Feeling”
    15 Jul 2021
    The very physical category of femaleness was articulated by feminists and non-feminists alike as the sole property of whiteness in the 19th century,
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us