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
  • omnibus

If I had a hammer…
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
12 Oct 2017
🖨️ Print Article
If I had a hammer....
If I had a hammer…

My Dad drew blueprints,
Built cabinets, designed
ultra-modern kitchens, offices:
Master of tile, electrical, plumbing,
painting—imagining, mixing
Colors he dreamed up

Finish carpenter, cabinetmaker, contractor
Hanging doors, ripping two by fours—
Bad Hombre never showed
up in Beverly Hills,
With one hammer or saw.

He traveled with trim hammers,
framing hammers, ball peens,
22oz hammers, 32oz hammers, mallets—
Even sledge hammers for persuading
framed walls and beams

Similarly with several saws:
Table saw, circular saws, coping saw,
bandsaw, miter saw, jigsaw, rip saw—
17 saws for different jobs…

Movement building’s no different…
One tool—method of struggle—
Won’t work on every job. And,
Violence versus nonviolence is
an old splitting tool in 1% toolboxes

Prayer, comradely criticism
and self-criticism with
klansmen and nazis,
Pummeling one with pipes,
Earn return trips to the toolbox

Freedom songs, solidarity statements,
Polemics, picket lines, boycotts, mass meetings,
Mass marches, mass rallies, teach-ins,
Sit-ins, die-ins, sabotage, negotiations…
Must all be in our toolboxes

When SWAT invaded Central Avenue
before the sun rose—
to kill my Cousin and 16 Panther comrades—
Remington, Thompson,
Smith & Wesson spoke
Eloquently for five hours—
gathering, Awakening, witnesses
Saving 17 lives where
Gandhi and King were muted…

Raymond Nat Turner © 2017 All Rights Reserved

Our own 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.


Related Stories

Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
MrJoeSam’s Text Messages
12 June 2024
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR’s poet-in-residence, pays homage to San Francisco’s shipyard artist JoeSam who died peacefully on June 1, 2024, surroun
Raymond Nat Turner
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Dis-honest Broker
01 May 2024
"Dis-honest Broker" is the latest from BAR's Poet-in-Residence, recently performed at UpSurge!
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Raymond Nat Turner at the UpSurge Jazz Celebration
03 April 2024
 
Image of Refaat Alareer sitting in a crowd of graduates
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
POEM: If I Must Die, Refaat Alareer, 2023
13 December 2023
Palestinian poet Refaat Alareer, a martyr of zionist state genocidal violence, has left us with a tale of resistance and hope.
Reese Piece…
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Reese Piece…
15 April 2021
Salute to City of Angels’ son! He wrote, he wrote, he wrote And he wrote… Ramparts, The Progressive, The
First 100 Daze: A ‘new’ dance craze
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
First 100 Daze: A ‘new’ dance craze
27 January 2021
Everybody’s wild ‘bout this ‘new’ dance craze— this lewd, crude dance called “The 1st 100 Daze…”
mashing the state— Kristallnacht-style
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
mashing the state— Kristallnacht-style
20 January 2021
Kristallnacht came casting lead ballots, overthrowing Black elected officials and Massacring those that VOTED for them— 
This is what hypocrisy looks like…
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
This is what hypocrisy looks like…
13 January 2021
“It's like writing history with lightning.“ — Woodrow Wilson on Birth of A Nation
Think…
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Think…
06 January 2021
Think of peoples having the most tanks, the most drones, the most missiles, bombs, aircraft carriers, 
$election postmortem 
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
$election postmortem 
10 December 2020
It was the Latino Vote… No, it was the Latinix vote! No, it was Black Women! No, it was LGBTQ+ Black Women!

More Stories


  • 21st Century Wire Global Affairs
    HARVARD REPORT: The Hidden Numbers Behind Gaza’s Real Death Toll
    25 Jun 2025
    A recent report prepared by Garb Yaakov, a Professor at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel, and published on The President & Fellows of Harvard College Dataverse website, has…
  • Tamanisha John
    Resisting Dependency: U.S. Hegemony, China’s Rise, and the Geopolitical Stakes in the Caribbean
    25 Jun 2025
    The Caribbean has become an emerging battleground in the U.S.-China rivalry, as regional states strategically navigate between the demands of superpowers and their own development needs.
  • Nicholas Mwangi
    Ghana’s Support for Morocco’s Autonomy Plan Undermines Western Sahara’s Push for Sovereignty
    25 Jun 2025
    Ghana endorsed Morocco’s autonomy plan for Western Sahara, abandoning its long-held support for Sahrawi sovereignty. Now Ghana is aligned with Morocco’s expanding economic and diplomatic maneuver…
  • Progressive International
    "Their aim is silence — ours is truth"
    25 Jun 2025
    Statement from the Sovereign Media collective, a new coalition of anti-imperialist media organizations, on the Israeli regime's assault on journalists from Palestine to Iran.
  • Baraka on LSR
    ​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist , Charisse Burden-Stelly, PhD , Layla Brown, PhD
    Ajamu Baraka Speaks on Israel, Iran, and Zionism
    25 Jun 2025
    Ajamu Baraka joins LSR to discuss BAP's June 13, 2025, statement, "The Middle East is On Fire Because Israeli and U.S. Imperialism Lit the Match". What is the current situation in the region? How…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us