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


  • 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…
  • Mamdani and Tisch
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Mamdani Reappoints NYPD Commissioner Who Refused to Punish Killer Cops
    28 Nov 2025
    Samy Feliz is an organizer with Justice Committee, a grassroots organization dedicated to building a movement against police violence and systemic racism in New York City and empowering low-income…
  • Congress members
    Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    Illegal Orders, Liberal Hypocrisy, and Fake Outrage
    26 Nov 2025
    Democrats recruit military veterans and former intelligence agency operatives to run for office to prove their pro-war credentials. A contrived fight with Donald Trump shouldn’t fool anyone.
  • ​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
    United Nations Security Council Resolution on Gaza is a Surrender to U.S. Led Global Fascism
    26 Nov 2025
    By approving a U.S. "peace plan" that legitimizes genocide and ends the right to resist, the United Nations Security Council has not just failed Palestine—it has actively consolidated a new era of…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us