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

AB
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
14 Jan 2014
🖨️ Print Article

by BAR poet-in-residence Raymond Nat Turner

Still the syn-tactical surgeon

With precision pen, atomic tenor,

Suturing my severed tongue

 

AB

by BAR poet-in-residence Raymond Nat Turner

 

Ho Chi Minh penned in

Prison Poems, the

Poet must also

Know how to lead an attack

Not a god or stamp, you

Are still my father, son and

Holy-ghost, post-Langston,

Sterling poet warrior

 

Still the syn-tactical surgeon

With precision pen, atomic tenor,

Suturing my severed tongue

 

Still the armory

Issuing anti-fracking ordinance

For strikes on Mengeles

At Monsanto

 

Still the arsenal

Supplying smart bombs for

Our war on government-guided

Attack-Negroz like

Da Men of Steele — Shelby and

Michael — Long Dong Silver, AKA,

Thom-Ass Clarence, Ward Connerly,

Colin Powell and dem imperialist Rice wenches…

 

I searched frantically for you at the end

Of the Apollo’s Sekou Sundiata celebration;

I jumped over a chair, just missing you, at

The Harlem Stage tribute to Abbey Lincoln;

 

Finally, caught you at the Schomburg’s

Langston Hughes Auditorium, at the

Fidel-Malcolm Meeting book talk—

Forgave you for slipping

On Iceberg Slim, and

Told you, “I LOVE YOU…”

 

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


  • Guinea Bissau
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Guinea-Bissau Coup Protects Its Neo-Liberal State
    05 Dec 2025
    The West African nation of Guinea-Bissau recently experienced an aborted electoral process followed by what was called a coup d’etat. But the reality differs from the narrative presented by the neo-…
  • Ajamu on Reason2Resist
    ​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist , Dimitri Lascaris
    US Attack On Venezuela Would Cause 'Chaos' In The Region w/ Ajamu Baraka
    03 Dec 2025
    Ajamu Baraka, BAR Editor and Columnist, joins Dimitri Lascaris to discuss the potential US attack on Venezuela and its regional impact. The conversation explores the legality and morality of recent…
  • Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    The Double Tap on Venezuela
    03 Dec 2025
    U.S. sanctions, violence, threats, and theft are war crimes waged against Venezuela for decades. A scandal about a “double tap” killing should not be the focus of attention.
  • Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    ESSAY: When to fight, when to care, Floyd Dunn, 1993
    03 Dec 2025
    “The [AIDS] epidemic continued to gobble up the first phase of us…”
  • Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki Stands with Sudan
    03 Dec 2025
    Eritrean President Isais Afwerki arrived in Port Sudan on November 29 to stand with General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan for the unity of Sudan.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us