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What makes you hopeful? (For Kris and KT)
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
26 Jan 2022
🖨️ Print Article
What makes you hopeful? (For Kris and KT)

                                                                                                               What makes you hopeful?

                                                                                                                     (For Kris and KT)

                                                                                                         ”…I hope someday you’ll join us.

                                                                                                           And the world will live as one.”

                                                                                                                     —John Lennon

There are times she asks me, “What gives you hope?”

I say, “Ain’t The Audacity of Dope—“

Ol’ Schmo, Slick Willy or The Drone Ranger

It’s random acts of kindness from a stranger

It’s Farmers Markets, Co-Ops and mutual aid

It’s those first crayon drawings my children made!

It’s couples taking care of each other

It’s a professor teaching his grandmother

It’s the bad saxophonist who can sing—

It’s the hot Jazz group that can playground swing

It’s a young drummer who’s living his dream…

It’s John Coltrane blowing A Love Supreme!

It’s the cozy, sable, zippered sweater

It’s brilliant teachers making me better

It’s red flags flying from a church steeple—

It’s gangstas woke—now serving the people!

It’s school children walking out in protest

It’s freedom fighters who risk arrest…

It’s an addict living clean and sober

It’s Ferguson’s thru-line to Strike-tober

It’s speeches of Malcolm and Dr. King

It’s George Floyd Summer thawing Arab Spring…

It’s my ‘rabbi’ dying—then coming back

It’s waking up this morning—proud and Black

It’s fifteen minutes of flame once a week—

It’s Tryin’/Tranein’ for my Wikileak!

© 2022. Raymond Nat Turner, The Town Crier. All Rights Reserved.

Former forklift driver/warehouse worker/janitor, 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: https://www.gofundme.com/f/the-town-criers-big-tooth-fund

PayPal: paypal.me/towncrierRNT

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