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


  • The Emerging Movement for Police and Prison Abolition
    Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor
    The Emerging Movement for Police and Prison Abolition
    12 May 2021
    In the past year or two, the proposition of defunding or abolishing police and prisons has travelled from incarcerated-activist networks into mainstream conversations.
  • We Must Break the Duopoly Or Biden Will Deliver Something Much Worse Than Trump
    The Peoples Party
    We Must Break the Duopoly Or Biden Will Deliver Something Much Worse Than Trump
    12 May 2021
    Biden promises popular progressive policies, then quietly reneges while the corporate press turns a blind eye and falls silent.
  • If Mumia Abu-Jamal’s Case Is a ‘Non-Issue,’ Why Have Media Gone to Such Lengths to Silence Him?
    Janine Jackson 
    If Mumia Abu-Jamal’s Case Is a ‘Non-Issue,’ Why Have Media Gone to Such Lengths to Silence Him?
    12 May 2021
    The corporate media is second only to the police in spreading falsehoods about the nation’s best known political prisoner.
  • Epidemic Empire: Colonialism, Contagion, and Terror 1817-2020
    Joshua Moufawad-Paul
    Epidemic Empire: Colonialism, Contagion, and Terror 1817-2020
    12 May 2021
    “Disease poetics” has been part of global capitalism since its emergence.
  • A Curious Tale of an Iceberg with a Hacked Tip
    Dr. Kweli Nzito
    A Curious Tale of an Iceberg with a Hacked Tip
    12 May 2021
    Practitioners of the dark art of bigotry find a perfect camouflage behind impenetrable walls of denial to mask their wicked ways.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us