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
  • omnibus

not a great true believer....
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
27 Mar 2019
🖨️ Print Article
shotcallers and casualties
“Every government is run by liars. Nothing they say should be believed.” ― I.F. Stone

I’m
Caffie’s son—raised to resist,
taught to question… Erring
on the side of thinking for
Myself

I
question, I ask, I seek sources;
and meet more than four corners;
fumbling in the dark for answers—
A blind man drawing conclusions
from feeling the elephant’s ear—
While other blind ones touch its
trunk,its tusks,its tail,its sides
drawing dissimilar conclusions…

I’ve
been around the block. And now, now
I’m too old; too Douglass; too Baldwin
to hang on every word of swollen-headed
white boys who speak as if they’ve found
The Fountain of Truth.

I
only know a lil Lenin: the
State is an organ of class rule…

© 2019. Raymond Nat Turner, The Town Crier. All Rights Reserved.
Our poet in residence Raymond Nat Turner is an acclaimed 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.


Related Stories

Editors, The Black Agenda Review
POEM: Poem for Walter Rodney, Edward Kamau Brathwaite, 1981  
11 June 2025
“any where or world where there is love there is the sky and its blue free
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
POEM: Reflections after the June 12th March of Disarmament, Sonia Sanchez, 1982
18 December 2024
“I have come to you tonite not just for the stoppage
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
POEM: Enemy of the Sun, Samih al-Qasim, 1970
29 May 2024
Read against the terrible incineration of Rafah today, this poem of resistance and refusal, by Pa
Image of Refaat Alareer sitting in a crowd of graduates
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
POEM: If I Must Die, Refaat Alareer, 2023
13 December 2023
Palestinian poet Refaat Alareer, a martyr of zionist state genocidal violence, has left us with a tale of resistance and hope.
Protest for Palestine at the White House
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Trigger Warning
22 November 2023
Trigger Warning Palestine’s the Answer— What was the Question?
Our ‘democracy’
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Our ‘democracy’
23 July 2021
Shangri-La—untaxed, socially-distanced champagne- caviar, Cayman Island, yacht crowds who
Pigment of your Imagination: Black magic mascots, props and sops?
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Pigment of your Imagination: Black magic mascots, props and sops?
15 July 2021
Could the pigment of your imagination cause Black magic mascots, props, sops— Black faces in high places—
A known known…
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
A known known…
08 July 2021
“…there are known knowns. There are things we know that we know. There are known
Twerkers of the World you might…(Or when they go low we get high?)
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Twerkers of the World you might…(Or when they go low we get high?)
01 July 2021
“History repeats itself,  first as tragedy, second as farce.” —Karl Marx
The Town Crier’s Big Tooth Fund (For Drs. Rosenthal, Sapir and Ferdowsi)
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
The Town Crier’s Big Tooth Fund (For Drs. Rosenthal, Sapir and Ferdowsi)
23 June 2021
"From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs…” —Karl Marx

More Stories


  • Essam Elkorghli
    NATO’s Depleted Uranium: The Health Consequences of Freedom and Democracy in Iraq, Libya and the Former Yugoslavia
    23 Apr 2025
    NATO’s depleted uranium weapons leave a deadly legacy—cancer, birth defects, and environmental ruin in war-torn regions. The silent genocide continues long after the bombs stop falling.
  • Jocelyn Figueroa
    Working Homeless People: Laboring Without a Roof
    23 Apr 2025
    For millions, a job is no longer enough to afford housing—yet the myth that homeless people don’t work still dominates public opinion.
  • Black Agenda Radio
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Black Agenda Radio April 18, 2025
    19 Apr 2025
    In this week’s segment we discuss New York state proposals to change rules on discovery, the sharing of evidence between defense attorneys and prosecutors.
  • Ecuador
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Ajamu Baraka on Ecuador's Elections, U.S. Intervention, and Afro-Ecuadorian Human Rights
    18 Apr 2025
    Ajamu Baraka is a Black Agenda Report contributing editor and director of the North-South Project for People(s)-Centered Human Rights, a project of the Black Alliance for Peace. He recently…
  • Alliance to protect Khalif's law
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    New York Politicians Prepare to Weaken Kalief's Law
    18 Apr 2025
    We are joined by Conrad Blackburn, policy counsel and staff attorney in the Criminal Defense Practice of the Bronx Defenders. The Bronx Defenders is a public defender non-profit organization and a…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us