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


  • Black Agenda Radio
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Black Agenda Radio May 31, 2024
    31 May 2024
    This week, we speak to the author of a book on the worldwide liberation struggles of African people and Margaret Kimberley discusses her recent briefing to the United Nations Security Council. But…
  • Gerald Horne
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    International Impact of Israel's Ongoing War Crimes
    31 May 2024
    Dr. Gerald Horne joins us from Houston to discuss the International Court of Justice's order for Israel to cease operations in Rafah and Israel's bombing of a refugee camp there soon after.
  • Roger McKenzie
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    African Uhuru: the Fight for African Freedom in the Rise of the Global South
    31 May 2024
    Roger McKenzie joins us from Oxford to discuss his new book, African Uhuru: the Fight for African Freedom in the Rise of the Global South.
  • Political misfits
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Ukraine and the Threat to World Peace: a United Nations Briefing
    31 May 2024
    Margaret Kimberley recently joined Political Misfits to discuss her recent experience briefing the United Nations Security Council on threats to international peace about the ongoing proxy war in…
  • Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    Biden Sliding Towards World War III
    29 May 2024
    The idea of a world war should not be relegated to science fiction. Western escalations in Ukraine could lead to conflict with a nuclear power.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us