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

Buzzed In By Lewis
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
01 Feb 2018
🖨️ Print Article

5 in the morning, ‘The Lewis Sawyer Experience’
early morning Boys Club in Papa Sawyer’s Cave:
My lick for Lewis, “Lewis Sawyer, is my lawyer—”
his classic chuckle-comeback, “Well, you’re in bad shape then!”
Poets and last words, “Well, David McBurney is my attorney…”
But Lewis was a bullhorn, shouting names of our Political Prisoners,
Prisoners Of War, languishing forgotten in gulags across imprisoned
nation. He put 59,000 watts beneath their wings,without fanfare—
While reminding us: we’re just in Minimum Security…

Being buzzed in to the Mother Ship by Lewis
felt safe, welcome—presence appreciated—in
Good hands, a trillion times more reliable than Allstate
Lewis was the first face I’d see at the station—
unerring source for five-star information

Warmth was his uniform; his smile his badge,
reflecting respect back like a mirror from the
Mountaintop: all the authority a badass Angel,
sweet scientist, who could handle ‘situations…’
Required; I emerged from ‘Lewis Sawyer Experiences’
with double shot expresso optimism

A modest, minimalist, Monk life-stylist—
Count Basie of Kindness—
Not a whole lot of notes there
but his voicings sung and swung;
Duke Ellington of Passion:
Things he loved, he loved madly—
speaking of love—Lewis was LOVE
Not a mushy, gushy, sentimental bubblegum LOVE
But, an I believe in you, when no one else believes LOVE
I honor your light, anything I can do to amplify it LOVE
As you stand on stage, I’ll sit in the audience LOVE
Anything you need early in the morning LOVE
Release your worry beads, I got your back LOVE
Harness your hardships, “too big to fail” LOVE

Let’s suppose that place
preachers speak of Sundays
Exists; suppose I make the cut—
I bet Lewis will be there buzzing me in… Lewis Sawyer:
Presente!

poetry

More Stories


  • Mali
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Mali Attacked By Western Backed Proxies
    08 May 2026
    On April 25th, the West African nation Mali experienced a coordinated attack carried out by Western-backed proxy forces seeking to undermine the Alliance of Sahel States confederation. Abayomi…
  • Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    The Voting Rights Act and the Need for Movement Politics
    06 May 2026
    From the 1870 15th Amendment to the Voting Rights Act of 1965, voting rights for Black people have proven to be ephemeral. Laws can be unenforced or gutted altogether. Black people’s rights must be…
  • Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    LETTER: Pedro Pérez Sarduy to Carlos Moore, 1990
    06 May 2026
    “I felt proud to be black in a country in revolution with a leader of Iberian ancestry who had launched Operation Carlota, in one of the hardest terrains on the African continent…”
  • Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    Eritrea and the “Internal Government Document Seen by Reuters”
    06 May 2026
    Reuters reports on a mysterious government document seeming to confirm that sanctions will be lifted on Eritrea.
  • Anthony Karefa Rogers-Wright
    In its Lynching of the Voting Rights Act, Did SCOTUS Just Do Us A Favor By Elucidating the Lies of “America?”
    06 May 2026
    The Supreme Court decision in Louisiana v. Callais revealed that Black people's limited electoral power is not protected, and it never has been.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us