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

if it takes 100 years
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
06 Dec 2017
🖨️ Print Article
if it takes 100 years

I am the North Star—
Hope; Never wavering, organizing,
burning thorough bars, walls, wire—
I am consciousness of all
creatures, crystalline water,
clean, sweet air, black soil
From forgotten reservations

I am non-GMO, organic apples,
pears, lettuce, tomatoes, spinach
Springing from beads of sweat
mixed with midnight oil—
I am not the latest sneakers, phones
from Black Friday Madness,
Celebrity Worship or
Dumbed-down gossip ‘bout ‘stars’

I am coagulated blood
of gunned down doctors wafting from
Women’s reproductive rights—
Flowering from fertilizer of guilt
I am freedom, loving
Whomever I choose…

I am single-payer
Healthcare rising from Big Pharma
body-slams/lies of lobotomized politicians;
I am affordable housing
clubbed from corrugated cardboard sleep;
I am free education—
Peace studies writhing free of
handcuffs, cutting off circulation…
I am smoldering ashes of a
burned down Black Baptist Church
Repudiating ‘race’ with pain

I am revolution—
Socialism passing freely, back and forth
between metal detectors/bomb-sniffing dogs—
Arriving just moments ago:
…Having been here forever…

Raymond Nat Turner © 2017 All Rights Reserved
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.


More Stories


  • Travis Ross
    How Aristide’s Lavalas Family Party Has Lurched to the Right
    22 Jan 2025
    Fanmi Lavalas has fallen far from its roots as a popular progressive movement and is now nothing more than a servant of imperialism.
  • Ramzy Baroud
    The Price of Impunity in Gaza: Is This Israel’s Day of Reckoning?
    22 Jan 2025
    The war crimes committed by Israeli soldiers have not gone unnoticed by the rest of the world. After over a year of proudly displaying their dirty deeds on social media, these war criminals are now…
  • Alexander Rubinstein
    Black Money, Black Flags: How USAID Paved the Way for Syria’s Militant Takeover
    22 Jan 2025
    The United States leverages soft power through NGOs such as USAID. In Syria, USAID operated as a channel to help maintain relations with terrorist groups and facilitate regime change through the…
  • Black Agenda Radio
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    Black Agenda Radio January 17, 2025
    17 Jan 2025
    In this week’s segment, we discuss the incoming Donald Trump administration, why Trump was elected again, and what we may be able to expect in his term. But first, we begin with discussing a new…
  • Gerald Horne
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Gerald Horne: African Americans & A New History of the US
    17 Jan 2025
    Dr. Gerald Horne is an author and historian who currently holds the John J. and Rebecca Moores Chair of History and African American Studies at the University of Houston. Dr. Horne is a prolific…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us