SECTION TWO
sm
COLUMN
SIXTY-TWO, AUGUST 1, 2001
(Copyright © 2001 The Blacklisted Journalist)
A MESSAGE FROM SUN RA
(Photo by Myles Aronowitz)
(Copyright - 1997 Myles Aronowitz)
[This poem first appeared in Amiri Baraka's self-published Razor.]
Word
From Sun Ra
"You on the Space Ship Earth
& you outward bound
destination unknown.
But you haven't met the Captain
Of the space ship yet!"
Like the Dr. sd, suppose you actually believed
In
God - but you don't....aint no reason to, mammy jammy
Don't
exist-but suppose you actually believed
And
therefore didn't understand that aint nobody
At
the controls of this number...and them suckers
With
the guns, is fighting to see who gonna be in charge
Of
the crash!"
If you was Shine, you would laugh
Cause you remember the real Titanic
And how them drowning ghosts
Was screaming your name
As
you predicted Michael Jordan
With
your Thelonius back stroke
From
the Antarctic to Harlem River Drive.
But
if you aint Shine, and don't understand
That
this space ship is a disaster gonna waste
Almost
everybody in the sky sea and land
What
can I say, and if I did say something
What
wd it sound like to you and the ghost
And
the deeply ill this explosion will kill
Say
this, to answer that. . . .Aint much time
And
Shine done sang his song. But you got
Any
Sun Ra records or DuBois books?
Otherwise
You
gon die
With
the murderers
&
crooks.
Sun
Ra
I.
I got a Message from
Sun Ra
Sun Ra
We got a message
From Sun Ra
Sun Ra
Sun Ra
Sd "The World is in
transition
Your world & your condition"
Sun
Ra returned
&
visited Philadelphia
Sd,
"I left for a N.Y. minute
But I came back to hell ya."
II.
Got
a Message
A
Message
From
Sun Ra
From
Sun Ra
& this what Sun Ra
"This
world, your world,
is in transition
for Both the Living & The Dead
(Alto)
So what did Sun Ra say
Sun Ra
Sun Ra
What did Sun Ra say
(Alto)
(Drum)
Sun Ra Returned
Hovered over Philly
Some thought he was the Mother Ship
But we knew he was being Hip
(Drum)
Sun Ra
Sun Ra
Sun Ra returned
Sun Ra
& this is what
he
sd
(Singers & Piano
& Bass)
"I am nothing but a color
nothing but a name
nothing but a flash of daylight
nothing but an ex-slave
"
& the past it never
came
I
am the missing future
&
the vision that you claim
Sun
Ra
(Dancer & Tpt)
Sun Ra returned to
say
"I
if you only Seize the Day
(Reed & Alto)
Translation was
necessary
Jupiter language & like our own
Like dig the way its sound
& the frown put Giuliani/Caesar boy again
Re work inside you/modee the soul
& sun & nature, water like bebop
Sunshine.
Ok, kill the dog & open up
The
day!
(Tpt
& drum)
Sun Ra
(Alto & tpt)
Sun Ra dig he
Swayin cross the stage
(Drum)
Sun Ra, Sun Ra
(Open
scat style- All)
So the sky
Where
we all come from
Inside the world is Blackness
Blood is light & water
Breath is heat & sun
Sun
Ra was before anything except
The pygmies
Wore Sun Ra tee shirts
But they looked like their skin
Sun Ra
Came back
Hung around left a message
On what we lack
Sun Ra Sun Ra came ba
III.
Was
a message
Older than
The Hear
Was making language
Lay-up-in-the-tree language
Thumb language
Vowel language
Brain-getting-big-in-the-tree
lst to see
the Sky
language
Sun Ra
Sun Ra
Sun Ra returned
Left a message for the Diggers
Left a message for the
Worldly wise (for those with ears & eyes)
Left a message in his music
A message from the Sun
Sun he dug everything was here
There
Her
hear
IV.
Can you hear the message
Left by Sun Ra for the Hip
"the world is everything
the world is every where
& whatever said or done
is just description of the there"
Sun Ra
Sun Ra
Sun Ra returned
When we got to signifying
Like inside the electric brain
Van
Allen Belt
So the
Beast cd not pursue
Us there
(Solo)
Was Sun Ra Was Su Ra
At night at the Black Arts
School
Was Sun Ra Sun Ra
Left to say he gone
Returned to say Come On
(Solo)
"Oh, world, you backward
Look in the mirror
& read the Scripture right
Wake up Get up, like the Wailers sd
& look yrself in the Head
(Ensemble)
"Everything the same thing
Not one God but one thing
Everything is the this
Everything is the same
'time & Place a moment
A moment just the same
"Here is there & there is here
& Gone is Come and Come is Gone
One is two & two is One
& Everything is Nothing &
Everywhere is Nowhere
& Aint no Place & Aint no Space
& All me is was will & when
& what come will come again?
Was
Sun Ra Is Sun Ra
Be Sun Ra from inside
Trembling light Earth to Saturn to Jupiter
"From
Black to Ultra-Violet
To Indigo to Soulful Blue
Take me take me take me
Altogether
Yellow watch me Brown upon the earth
Atop a tree I paint the world
Like
my heart- Oh Beat Beat
Oh
Beat Be-At
Be-At
Sun Ra Sun Ra Sun Ra
Returned
to say
"Feel
me at night
See
me in the Day?
Was
Sun Ra
Sun Ra
Sun Ra
Come
Back
"When
I caught a fire (was always on fire)
I came like a comet, was a Planet
Invisible cd sing in yr head
Then I turned Red
Was a Black Bird
Cd sing, was a Black Bird
With a flaming tale
Cd rap cross water
Beat a log like a sailor
Was a wave like a sea
Was a crooked piece of sunlight
Was Sun Ra Was Su Ra
Was Sun Ra Returned
& Red was explosion
going home
from on a mission
Exploding Red through nine past Suns
Beyond Sun & myself Sun
Ra Sun Ra
(All
Voices, Ensemble, under that solos, Break dance, jagged sudden stop-go steps
from all. Reeds hard, Band free,
Some squat, Some leap, some scat, some play, some sing)
V.
Was
Sun Ra, When he returned
Way go deep way off
Be sleep Go on
Wake Sun
Oh,
Gone
Way it clear
Was Sun Ra Sun Ra
Sun Ra
When he returned
(Repeat
... alto)
Why all they here without the rest
Of
us the we
No one there
Without is
As love
Electric
Invisible
Under you
Under
All
From ON
Rising Gone
Sun Ra return
Sd
"Everything aint a nigger
you already dead
Everything a slave master
You gon' die instead
Sd Sun Ra
Sun Ra
Sun Ra
Sun Ra
Return
(All solos-& break - raise each instrument)
I am Sun Ra
(All, each, speak)
I am Sun Ra
(Together)
We are Sun Ra
You are Sun Ra (2)
Nobody is Sun Ra (2)
The world is Sun Ra (2)
But aint seen no God We seen the Sun
Aint felt no God Have felt the Sun
Ha!, Aint no God!
But
we know the Devil Real!
So
the world
Sd, Sun Ra
VI.
Sun Ra
When he Return
'so
the world
In transition
& the mighty people
all the many colored niggers
like the hip of your body
like the flashes and funk of
your mind
So the many colored flashes of
Divinity - Sd Sun Ra Sd Sun Ra
When Sun Ra returned
"Divinity is Infinity
to tell the future is Divine
The world isn't really matter
Independent of your mind.
"All you different colored Niggers
the
dying World
"When the Dogs & Beasts are Dead
When
they suicide the fools &
Kill
themselves
When you have slain the ugly
Beast then
All you
Niggers
Different shades and forms
& languages & figures
All you Niggers
Gonna
live!"
That's
what Sun Ra
Thus
spoke Sun Rs
So
Sd Sun Ra
When
Sun Ra Returned
& if you think we
lying
then you about to
get
burned.
(Finale)
Sd Sun Ra
Sd Sun Ra
Sd Sun Ra
When Sun Ra Returned
(Do Steps, sequence as
before)
(Scream)
Sun Ra
Sd
Sun Ra
Sd Sun RA
All
you different kind of niggers gonna Live!"
AB
5/31/98
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