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


  • Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    ESSAY: The Question of Compensation: A Third World Perspective, Norman Girvan, 1972
    20 Sep 2023
    Where are multinational corporations in discussions of reparations? The late Jamaican political economist Norman Girvan provides an answer.        
  • Getting Ethiopia Dead Wrong
    Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    Getting Ethiopia Dead Wrong
    20 Sep 2023
    Rasmus Sonderriis's book is a thorough exposé of the West's destructively deceitful narrative about Ethiopia's two-year Tigray War.
  • BAR Book Forum: Celeste Winston’s Book “How to Lose the Hounds”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Celeste Winston’s Book “How to Lose the Hounds”
    20 Sep 2023
    This week’s featured author is Celeste Winston.
  • Understanding the White Supremacy at the Center of the 'Class Over Race' Debate
    Jon Jeter
    Understanding the White Supremacy at the Center of the 'Class Over Race' Debate
    20 Sep 2023
    Any talk of discussing class instead of racism is disingenuous in a country which uses every opportunity to indulge in anti-Black racism. The history of racism in the labor movement is just one…
  • Libya’s disastrous flooding… Causes and hope?
    Essam Elkorghli
    Libya’s disastrous flooding… Causes and hope?
    20 Sep 2023
    The U.S./NATO destruction of the Libyan state in 2011 was followed unilateral coercive measures, sanctions, which rendered that nation unable to maintain dams which failed during a recent storm.…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us