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


  • Keston Perry
    Why a Caribbean Zone of Radical Peace is Vital and Must Be Realized Through Working-Class Unity
    03 Dec 2025
    We must struggle for a radical peace in the Caribbean. Maurice Bishop offers us a guide.
  • Brahim Rouabah , Corinna Mullin
    On the Coloniality of Solidarity: Iran, Imperialist Aggression, and the Western Left’s Blind Spot
    03 Dec 2025
    The 'pure' leftism of the Western academy denounces Iran's state while ignoring its real crime: defying imperialism. This selective solidarity has become a weapon of empire, disarming the very…
  • John Perry , Roger D. Harris
    It’s Not Only About Venezuela: Trump Intends a Wider Domino Effect
    03 Dec 2025
    One-fifth of the U.S. Navy now sits in the Caribbean, positioned to initiate regime change in Venezuela and beyond. This is a campaign to cleanse the hemisphere. First Venezuela, then any government…
  • BAR Radio Logo
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Black Agenda Radio November 28, 2025
    29 Nov 2025
    In this week’s segment, we talk to a man whose brother was killed by an NYPD officer who the police commissioner, reappointed by Zohran Mamdani, refused to fire from his job. But first, we discuss a…
  • China Changes Everything
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    China Changes Everything
    29 Nov 2025
    Jacqueline Luqman is a radical activist based in Washington DC, and the co-founder of Luqman Nation, an independent Black media outlet. She joins us from Washington to discuss a newly published book…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us